LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 




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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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STEPPING-STONES 



ON THE ROAD TO THE 



CATHOLIC FAITH. 



Rev. JAMES J. MORIARTY, A.M., 

Pastor of St. Patrick' l s Churchy Chatham Village, New York. 



"DIVERSO STYLO, NON DIVERSA FIDE." 



" Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being always ready to satisfy 
every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you." 

i Epist. St. Peter iii. 15. 



1 



NEW YORK: 
THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO, 

9 Barclay Street. 

1880. 

7T 




Copyrighted by 
Rev. JAMES J. MORIARTY, A.M. 

1880. 



MY PROTESTANT FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS, 

WHOSE 

CANDOR, LOVE OF TRUTH, AND OPENNESS TO CONVICTION 

HAVE ALWAYS WON MY ADMIRATION, 

THIS HUMBLE WORK 

IS SINCERELY DEDICATED, 

WITH THE HOPE 

THAT IT MAY SERVE TO DISPEL THE MISTS OF PREJUDICE 

AND LEAD THE WAY 

TO A 

GREATER ILLUMINATION FROM THE FATHER OF LIGHT, 

"THE GIVER OF EVERY GOOD AND PERFECT GIFT." 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Preface, 7 

The Sacrifice of the Mass and its Ceremonies, . 13 
The Confessional, . ... . . . .58 

The Invocation of Saints, 101 

Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, . . . 139 

Purgatory, . . ^ 185 

Infallibility, . . • • . . . . . .235 



PREFACE 




FEW words with my kind 
readers may not, I hope, 
be deemed out of place. In- 
structed by an experience of fourteen 
years in a widely-extended mission — with- 
in the limits of which the members of 
the Catholic religion are in a marked 
minority — the writer of this little work 
has found, during his frequent and almost 
daily intercourse with those not of the 
household of faith, that most of the ob- 
jections against the Church are grounded 
on mistaken notions concerning those sa- 
lient points of her teaching which he 
here endeavors to elucidate. 



8 Preface. 

To many persons the "Mass" seems 
an unmeaning sort of pantomime, the 
" Confessional " a huge imposition, the 
" Intercession of Saints" an unwarranted 
innovation, " Devotion to the Blessed 
Virgin" despicable idolatry, " Purgatory" 
an impious fraud, and "Infallibility" ab- 
solute despotism. Therefore it is that 
he has selected these in preference to 
other doctrines, as they have been more 
assailed and more misunderstood. 

The writer puts no faith in mere con- 
troversy. He believes in the necessity 
of clear, simple, earnest explanations of 
Catholic dogmas, with the absence of 
every expression that could possibly 
wound or offend. Controversies are sel- 
dom or never productive of good results. 
They only serve to stir up bad feeling, 
to excite still more bitterly the prejudices 



Preface. 9 

of both sides, and to render the disputants 
still more tenacious of their own ground. 

Explanation enlightens and does not 
disturb, removes difficulties and does 
not wound, softens asperities and leaves 
no trace of bitterness behind. 

Much as we may, and do, differ on 
points of faith, and fundamental ones too, 
it is no reason that we should bear ill- 
feeling to one another. We should hate 
error, heresy, and every compromise of 
truth with falsehood, but we should by 
no means hate those in error or in he- 
resy, but embrace them all in the charity 
of Christ, praying for their conversion 
and removing all obstacles from their 
path. 

A great and glorious destiny not only 
in the material, but also in the spiritual, 
order is in store for this nation. This 



io Preface. 

is the great country of the future, not 
only for liberty but also for religion. 
Here the great battle between faith and 
infidelity is to be waged. 

The principles of the Catholic religion 
are in full harmony with those enunci- 
ated in the Declaration of Independence. 
There is no danger of incompatibility ; 
and if our priests and people be but fully 
alive to a sense of their great responsi- 
bilities, long before the next centennial 
of our national existence 'shall dawn this 
grand Republic will be the stronghold of 
the Church of God. 

Animated with these views, and trust- 
ing in the goodness of that God who 
wishes all men to be saved and to ar- 
rive at the knowledge of truth, I calmly 
let loose this little venturesome craft on 
the dangerous ocean of the literary 



Preface. 1 1 

world, hoping that it may serve as a 
temporary help and support for some 
poor mariner tossed about on the sea 
of doubt and carried away by every wind 
of doctrine, until he may be able to 
give true signals and hail the precious 
life-boat of Peter and be wafted in safety 
to the everlasting shore. 



J. J. M. 



Chatham Village, N. Y., 
Feast of St. Martin of Tours, 
November n, 1879. 




THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS, AND 
ITS CEREMONIES. 

HE Mass is the key to the en- 
tire Catholic worship — the sun 
or centre of the whole Catho- 
lic system. Understand it fully and clear- 
ly, and everything connected with the 
ceremonial of the Church becomes per- 
fectly plain and full of divine meaning. 

Be in ignorance with regard to its pro- 
per explanation, and everything in Catho- 
lic worship becomes unintelligible — a mere 
pantomime, a senseless jargon. 

Comprehend it, as the Church under- 
stands it and wishes it to be understood, 

and it is the grandest action that can be 

13 



14 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

possibly performed in the universe. God 
himself, with all the unlimited capabilities 
of His omnipotence, could not bestow on 
man the power to perform a nobler, ho- 
lier, or more important function. 

There is not a single motion, a minute 
ceremony, an apparently insignificant vest- 
ment, not the slightest change of posture, 
not a movement nor a prayer, that has 
not its deep mystic meaning, that carries 
not with it its useful lesson, its cheering 
thought, its consoling promise, or its earn- 
est exhortation. 

How sublime, and even divine, is the 
Mass! 

No matter how retired the locality, how 
miserably poor the surroundings, or how- 
humble the roof under which it is cele- 
brated — there is an action performed 
which rivets the attention and claims the 



and Its Ceremonies. 1 5 

worship of even the highest of those bless- 
ed spirits who watch over this material 
world of ours. 

Behold the priest vested for the Holy 
Sacrifice — the priest another Christ {Sa- 
cerdos, alter Christus), as he has been well 
termed. Hear him giving forth the mov- 
ing forty-second psalm, "Judica"; see him 
bowed down in the profound humiliation 
of the " Confiteor " ; then, ascending the 
Holy of Holies, thrice begging pardon of 
each of the three Divine Persons of the ado- 
rable Trinity at the " Kyrie," intoning with 
joyous strain the glorious anthem of the 
angelic "Gloria," announcing the sublime 
doctrines of the " Gospel," proclaiming aloud 
the potent " Credo," offering up the pre- 
cious elements at the " Offertory," raising 
his heart and those of his hearers at the 
" Sursum corda " of the Preface, and the 



1 6 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

exultant "Sanctus" ; witness the worship- 
ful adoration at the " Consecration," the 
silent absorption of the " Memento," the 
prayer of the Incarnate God, the divine 
u Pater Noster," the humble centurions 
" Domine, non sum dignus," the soul-ab- 
sorbing consuming of the Sacred Species 
at the Communion, and the last blessing, 
in the name of the omnipotent God, of 
the assembled prayerful multitude ! 

What possibly could be grander or 
more soul-inspiring than this tremendous 
mystery — tremendum mysterium, as it is 
called by the Council of Trent? 

Before entering on an explanation of 
what the Mass is, on what foundations it 
rests, the meaning of its sacred ceremo- 
nies, and the vestments used in its cele- 
bration, a few words on the nature and 
history of 



and Its Ceremonies. 1 7 

SACRIFICES 

in general will not, I trust, be out of 
place. 

A sacrifice is an offering, by a legiti- 
mate minister, of something which falls 
under the senses and which undergoes 
destruction or change, in acknowledgment 
of the supreme dominion of God over all 
creatures. 

From the very beginning of the world 
sacrifices were offered to the Almighty, 
and can certainly be traced back to the 
immediate sons of Adam, Abel and Cain 
— the former offering to God the first- 
lings of his flock, and the latter the first- 
fruits of the earth. Noe offered his 
sacrifice after coming out of the ark ; 
Abraham, his beloved son Isaac, the type 
of Christ ; Melchisedech, bread and wine 



1 8 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

— the figure of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, 
or the Mass. Melchisedech, " the king 
of justice and of peace/' was a true type 
of Christ. He was called " Priest of the 
Most High," and to him Abraham paid 
tithes of all the spoils gained by his vic- 
tory over the kings. Sacred Scripture 
gives no genealogy of Melchisedech, who 
rejoiced in the priestly office, inherited 
from no one and not succeeded to by 
others. 

In all times and countries, even when 
and where the worship of the true God 
was abandoned, sacrifices were offered by 
all tribes and peoples to their divinities. 
Being no doubt a part of the primitive 
revelation made to mankind, it seems to 
have been a natural instinct of the hu- 
man heart to offer up some sacrifice — 
such as the blood of animals or the first- 



and Its Ceremonies. 19 

fruits of the earth — in acknowledgment 
of the supreme dominion of God over 
life and death. 

Amongst the Greeks, the Romans, the 
Persians, and even amongst the most 
barbarous and uncivilized people in our 
own times, this custom prevailed and still 
prevails. By all it was looked upon as 
an essential act of worship, as a neces- 
sary act consequent upon mans depend- 
ence on God, and also as the most effi- 
cacious means of appeasing an angry 
Deity. 

Such has been the constant and inva- 
riable belief even of those left to their 
own natural light and not gifted with 
that superior light of divine faith illum- 
ining from on high. 

All the sacrifices under the Law of 
Moses were more or less symbolical of 



20 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

the great Sacrifice of the New Law. All 
were commanded by God Himself, who 
prescribed the various ceremonies to be 
performed during the holy functions. 

THE SACRIFICE OF THE NEW LAW, 

which was once offered up in a bloody 
manner on Calvary's Mount by Jesus 
Christ Himself, who was both High- 
Priest and Victim, is ever since conti- 
nued and renewed, though offered up in 
an unbloody manner, on all our altars, and 
shall so continue unto the end of time. 

The Sacrifice of the Mass and the 
Sacrifice on Calvary are not two diffe- 
rent sacrifices, therefore, but one and the 
same, having the same High- Priest and 
the same adorable Victim. In the Sa- 
crifice of Calvary Our Blessed Saviour 
suffered a real death ; in that of the 



and Its Ceremonies. 2 1 

Mass, a mystical death, represented by 
the separate consecration of the sacred 
species, the bread and the wine. This 
sacrifice has, consequently, the same ef- 
fect as that of Calvary, and the figu- 
rative death of our Lord, together with 
the participation of His Sacred Flesh and 
Blood, is as wonderfully productive of 
grace and power as the real, true death 
once consummated on the ignominious 
gibbet of the Cross. His sacrifice was 
not to be transitory or of short duration, 
but intended to continue during all time, 
in every age and country, as may be 
clearly seen from the prophecies of the 
Old Testament and His own unmistaka- 
ble declarations in the New Testament. 

The x^Vlmighty, expressing Himself dis- 
pleased with the sacrifices of the Jews, 
foretold, through 



22 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

THE PROPHET MALACHIAS, 

the new oblation which would be offered 
among the Gentiles, and which would 
render glory to His Name. He announces 
this new and great Sacrifice — one en- 
tirely worthy of Him — which would not 
be offered in one particular place, but 
amongst all nations " from the rising to 
the setting of the sun." " I have no 
pleasure in you, saith the Lord of Hosts, 
and I will not receive a gift of your 
hand. For from the rising of the sun 
even to the going down, My Name is 
great among the Gentiles ; and in every 
place there is sacrifice, and there is 
offered to My Name a clean oblation : 
for My Name is great among the Gen- 
tiles, saith the Lord of Hosts " (Mala- 
chias i. 10, 1 1). 



and Its Ceremonies, 23 

The same oblation was prefigured in 
the old law, as we learn from the Book 
of Genesis, xiv. 18: " Melchisedech, 
the king of Salem, bringing forth bread 
and wine, for he was the priest of the 
Most High God." 

The Psalmist testifies to the same 
(Psalm cix. 4) : " The Lord hath sworn, 
and He will not repent: Thou art a 
priest for ever according to the order 
of Melchisedech." 

The great Apostle St. Paul, in his 
Epistle to the Hebrews, thus gives his 
testimony : " It is impossible that with 
the blood of oxen and goats sins should 
be taken away. Therefore, coming into 
the world he saith : Sacrifice and obla- 
tion thou wouldst not ; but a body thou 
hast fitted to me ; holocausts for sin did 
not please thee. Then said I : Behold, 



24 The Sac7'ifice of the Mass, 

I come ; in the head of the book it is 
written of me, that I should do Thy will, 
O God. . . . He taketh away the 
first, that he may establish that which 
followed!" (x. 4-9). 

Then we have the Evangelists testi- 
mony, than which nothing can be more 
clear: " And taking bread He gave 
thanks, and brake : and gave to them, 
saying: This is My Body which is 
given for you. Do this for a commemo- 
ration of Me. In like manner the cha- 
lice also, after He had supped, saying : 
This is the chalice of the new testa- 
ment in My Blood, which shall be shed 
for you" (St. Luke xxii. 19-22). 

It is evident from this last text that our 
Blessed Saviour commanded the apos- 
tles, and in them their successors in of- 
fice, to continue to offer up this saving 



and Its Ceremonies. 25 

Victim until the end of time. His sa- 
crifice was to be offered but once in 
that terribly painful and bloody manner, 
as it was on Calvary's mount for the 
sins of all mankind; but it is His inten- 
tion that the same great sacrifice should 
be continued as long as His Church 
should last — that is, unto the consumma- 
tion of ages — and be offered up, in an 
unbloody manner, in order that the 
merits of redemption should be applied 
to our souls. In other words, the grand 
offering for the sins of the human race 
was made in the sacrifice of Calvary, 
but the application of the same infinite 
merits is effected through the Sacrifice 
of the Mass. 

St. Paul says (Heb. xiii. 10) : " We 
have an altar, whereof they have no 
power to eat who serve the tabernacle." 



26 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

What use would there be for an al- 
tar without a priest? And what utility 
to be derived from both priest and al- 
tar, if there were no sacrifice to be of- 
fered ? 

The same great apostolic teacher 
warns the Christians to beware of par- 
ticipating in the sacrifice offered to idols, 
as they would then be unworthy of par- 
ticipating in the Christian sacrifice. 

" I would not that you should be made 
partakers with devils. You cannot drink 
the chalice of the Lord, and the chalice 
of devils : you cannot be partakers of 
the table of the Lord, and of the table 
of devils" (i Corinthians x. 20, 21). 
" The chalice of benediction, which we 
bless, is it not the communion of the 
blood of Christ? And the bread, which 
we break, is it not the partaking of 



and Its Ceremonies. 27 

the body of the Lord?" (Ibid. 16). Also 
in the eleventh chapter of the same 
beautiful epistle: "For I have received 
of the Lord that which also I delivered 
unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the night 
in which He was betrayed, took bread, 
and giving thanks, broke and said: Take 
ye and eat : this is My Body which 
shall be delivered for you ; do this for 
the commemoration of Me. In like 
manner also the chalice, after He had 
supped, saying: This chalice is the 
new testament in My blood ; this do 
ye, as often as ye shall drink, for 
the commemoration of Me. For as 
often as ye shall eat this bread, and 
drink the chalice, ye shall show the 
death of the Lord, until He come. 
Therefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, 
or drink the chalice of the Lord un- 



28 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

worthily, shall be guilty of the body and 
blood of the Lord. But let a man 
prove himself: and so let him eat of 
that bread and drink of the chalice. 
For he that eateth and drinketh un- 
worthily, eateth and drinketh judgment 
to himself, not discerning the Body of 
the Lord." (All these texts are sub- 
stantially- the same in the Protestant 
version of the Scriptures.) 

The Sacrifice of the Mass derives all 
its merit, power, and efficacy from the 
Sacrifice of the Cross, the latter being 
the source of grace, and the former the 
channel through which it comes to us. 
On the Cross the infinite merits of Jesus 
Christ became our property, but in the 
Mass this inexhaustible wealth is distri- 
buted throughout the world. On the 
Cross He died for all men in general ; in 



and Its Ceremonies. 29 

the Mass, special application is made to 
individual souls. 

The Mass, being a supreme act of 
worship, can only be offered to 

GOD ALONE. 

" Deus, cui offertur ; Deus, qui offer- 
tur ; Deus, a quo offertur." As St. 
Augustine says : " God, to whom it is 
offered ; God, who is offered ; God, by 
whom it is offered." 

It cannot be offered to any created 
being, not to the highest saint or the 
brightest angel; no, not even to the 
Blessed Virgin. Mass may be, and often 
is, offered to the Almighty in honor of 
the Blessed Virgin, the angels, or the 
saints, in order to thank Him for the 
great graces and glory bestowed upon 
them and to beg their intercession, that 



30 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

we may follow in their footsteps and cul- 
tivate those virtues which they possessed 
in so high a degree; but the Mass is 
never offered to any saint, howsoever 
elevated, for this would be an act of 
idolatry — the giving to a creature the 
worship due only to the Creator. 

" Idolatry," says Dr. Jeremy Taylor, 
the great divine of the Church of Eng- 
land (in his book entitled Liberty of 
Prophesying, section 20, m. 26), "is 
a forsaking the true God and giving 
divine worship to a creature, or to an 
idol — that is, to an imaginary god. 
Now, it is evident that the object of their 
[the Catholics'] devotion in the Blessed 
Sacrament is the only true and Eternal 
God, hypostatically joined with His holy 
humanity, which humanity they believe 
actually present under the veil of the 



and Its Ceremonies. 31 

sacramental signs. And if they thought 
Him not present, they are so far from 
worshipping the bread in this case, they 
themselves profess it idolatry to do so. 
Which is a demonstration that their soul 
has nothing in it which is idolatrical ; 
the will has nothing in it but what is 
a great enemy to idolatry ; and nothing 
burns in hell but proper will." 

The Mass, then, is an offering made to 
the Almighty of the Body and Blood of 
Jesus Christ, or an action in which bread 
is consecrated into the Body and wine 
into the Blood of Christ by the sacred 
ministry of the priest, using the very 
words of our Saviour, and gifted with 
His authority, in commemoration of the 
sacrifice of Calvary, " to show the death 
of the Lord until He come," 

From all that has been said the con- 



v) 



2 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 



elusion is evident that the value of the 
Mass is infinite. St. Alphonsus Liguori 
declares that " all the honor which an- 
gels by their adoration, men by their 
good works, austerities, and even martyr- 
dom, have ever rendered or ever shall 
render to God, never could and never 
will give him so much glory as one 
single Mass ; for while the honor of 
all creatures is only finite, that which 
accrues to God from the Holy Sacri- 
fice of the altar is infinite, insomuch as 
the Victim which is offered is of infi- 
nite value. The Mass, therefore, offers 
to God the greatest honor that can be 
given Him ; subd.ues most triumphantly 
the powers of hell ; affords the great- 
est relief to the souls in purgatory ; 
appeases most efficaciously the wrath 
of God against sinners, and brings 



and Its Ceremonies. $$ 

down the greatest blessings on man- 
kind. " 

" This is truly the corn of the elect, 
and the wine springing forth virgins " 
(Zach. ix. 1 7). 

St. Bonaventure calls the Mass " the 
compendium of all God's benefits " — 
compendium quoddam beneficiorum suo- 
rum. St. John Chrysostom says that 
the Mass has as much value as the 
death of Christ on the cross: Tantum 
valet celebratio Missce quantum valet 
mors Christi in cruce. 

* Oh ! how greatly to be revered the 
dignity of priests," says the great St. 
Augustine in his commentary on the 
twenty-seventh psalm, " in whose hands, 
as in the womb of the Virgin, the 
Son of God takes unto Himself flesh " 
— O veneranda sacerdotum dignitas Y in 



34 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

quorum manibus velut in utero Virginis 
Filius Dei incarnatur 

CEREMONIES OF THE MASS. 

In all ' public worship ceremonies have 
always been considered necessary for the 
proper performance of sacred functions, 
and for the maintenance of greater de- 
cency and propriety. Some form of cere- 
monial law has ever been in use from 
patriarchal times, and still more so un- 
der the law of Moses; the various vest- 
ments and ceremonies having been or- 
dained by God Himself. Nor did our 
Blessed Saviour disdain the use of cere- 
monies, as we perceive from those He 
employed when He cured the man born 
blind (John xv. 6) and the deaf and 
dumb (Mark vii. 33). They are calcu- 
lated, first, to preserve uniformity, so de- 



and Its Ceremonies. 35 

sirable in divine worship ; secondly, to 
demonstrate, by exterior action, the in- 
terior dispositions of the soul, owing, as 
we do, the worship of both body and 
soul to the Almighty; moreover, in the 
third place, these outward ceremonies 
bring to mind, and more deeply impress, 
the truth of Christian mysteries, the dis- 
positions required for the proper recep- 
tion of the sacraments, and the corre- 
sponding obligations which they impose. 

Many of the ceremonies were ihstitut- 
ed by the Apostles and their immediate 
successors, "for the edification of the 
body of Christ" (Eph. iv). " Let all 
things be done decently and according 
to order," says St. Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 40). 
" The rest I will set in order when I 
come" (1 Cor. xi. 34). These words 
show that the apostle no doubt establish- 



36 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

ed regulations for the proper mainten- 
ance of divine worship. 

Now let us come to an explanation of 
the vestments of the priest and the cere- 
monies of the Mass. 

THE PRIEST 

is dressed in vestments every one of 
which is symbolical, having reference 
chiefly to the Passion of Christ, whose 
representative he is, more especially dur- 
ing the Holy Sacrifice. 

The first article which he puts on is 
a small, white, oblong linen cloth, which 
he first places on the back of his head 
and allows to fall on his shoulders close 
to the neck. This is the amid, and rep- 
resents the rags with which the Jews 
muffled our Saviours face. The alh (the 
long white garment extending to the feet 



and Its Ceremonies. 37 

and covering the cassock or soutane, 
the priests ordinary ecclesiastical dress) 
is emblematic of the white garment put 
in derision on our Lord by Herod. 
The cincture, or girdle, signifies the 
cords and bands by which He was bound. 
The maniple (from the Latin word ma- 
nus, the hand) is worn on the left 
arm in memory of the cords with which 
His hands were tied to the pillar during 
the scourging. The stole, worn round 
the neck with the extremities crossed 
over the priests breast, signifies the 
heavy yoke of the cross to which He 
submitted for our sakes. The cha- 
suble, the full outer vestment, the 
purple garment with which our Sav- 
iour was clothed in mockery in the court 
of Pontius Pilate. On the chasuble is 
always a large embroidered cross, to re- 



38 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

mind both priest and people that the effi- 
cacy of the Sacrifice of the altar is deriv- 
ed from that of the Cross on Calvary. 
The berretta, or square black cap of the 
priest, is symbolical of the crown of 
thorns. 

The altar represents Mount Calvary; 
the chalice, the sepulchre; the altar linens, 
the winding-sheets ; the paten or silver 
plate, the stone rolled against the en- 
trance of the sepulchre; and the candles, 
the light of faith, " without which it is 
impossible to please God." 

The vestments have also a mystic 
meaning in reference to the priest him- 
self. The amict denotes divine hope, " the 
helmet of salvation " ; the alb, innocence 
of life; the cincture, holy purity; the 
maniple, patience in suffering; the stole, 
the yoke of Christ — "My yoke is sweet 



and Its Ceremonies. 39 

indeed and my burden light " ; and the 
chasuble, covering all the rest, the great 
mantle of charity. 

The vestments are of different colors. 
White, emblematic of purity, is used on 
the joyous feasts of our Lord, the Bless- 
ed Virgin, the confessors and virgins. 
Red, significative of fortitude, on the 
feasts of the Holy Cross, the instruments 
of the Passion, during the octave of Pen- 
tecost, and on the feasts of the martyrs. 
Purple is used in Lent and other peni- 
tential seasons. Green (expressive of 
hope) is used on ordinary Sundays from 
octave of Epiphany to Septuagesima and 
from octave of Pentecost to Advent, 
when there is no special feast. Black is 
used in Masses for the dead and on 
Good Friday. 



40 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE MASS. 

The Mass, as well as every office of 
religion, begins with the sign of the 
cross : In nomine Patris et Filii et 
Spiritus Sancti. Amen. — " In the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost." Amen. The Unity and 
Trinity of God, the Incarnation, Passion, 
and Death of our Saviour are all express- 
ed by this one saving sign. No wonder, 
then, that it has been in such constant 
use from the time of Christ and His 
Apostles. 

Tertullian, who wrote in the second 
century of our era, thus speaks of it : 
" At every moving from place to place, 
at every coming in and going out; in 
dressing, at the baths, at table; on 
lighting candles, going to rest, sitting 



and Its Ceremonies. 41 

down; in whatever action we are en- 
gaged, we sign ourselves on the fore- 
head with the cross " (De Corona Mil.) 

The priest then recites the forty- 
second psalm, "Judica" (the forty-third 
in the Protestant version), expressing the 
joy and desires of a soul approaching 
the altar of God. Bowing down, he says 
the " Confiteor," or general confession, in 
humble acknowledgment of his sinful- 
ness before God, and the clerk or acolyte 
does the same on behalf of the people- — 
showing the necessity of true repentance 
in order to derive the fruits of the Great 
Sacrifice. 

Ascending the altar steps, he begs of 
God to take away our iniquities, that we 
may be fit to enter His sanctuary. 

He then begins the Mass of the day 
at the "Introit" (an anthem from some 



42 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

part of the Scriptures, with verse of 
psalm and Gloria Patri), after which he 
returns to the middle of the altar, where 
he " says " Kyrie eleison " (the Greek for 
" Lord, have mercy ") thrice to God the 
Father, " Christe eleison " thrice to God 
the Son, and "Kyrie eleison" thrice to 
God the Holy Ghost. 

He then (except in penitential times, 
votive Masses, and Masses for the dead) 
intones the "Gloria in excelsis" — u Glory 
be to God on high." This hymn of 
praise being concluded, he turns to the 
people and says : " Dominus vobiscum " 
— " The Lord be with you." This salu- 
tation is made seven times during the 
Mass, and is the same as was addressed 
to Gedeon by the angel (Judges vi. 12), 
to the reapers by Boaz (Ruth ii. 4), and 
to Asa by Azarias (2 Paral. xv. 2). 



and Its Ceremonies. 43 

After one or more prayers at the left- 
hand side of the altar, he then reads the 
" Epistle," which is selected from some 
one of the various epistles of the New 
or from some book of the Old Testa- 
ment, which being concluded, the aco- 
lyte says: "Deo gratias," or " Thanks to 
God," for these salutary instructions. 

The missal or mass-book is then 
changed to the gospel side of the altar, 
denoting the change from the Old to the 
New Dispensation, and the people always 
stand while the Gospel is being read, to 
show their firm belief in the word of 
God and their readiness to obey it. 

Before the reading of the Gospel both 
priest and people make the sign of the 
cross on their foreheads to testify their 
open profession of the faith, on their lips 
to show that they are willing to give 



44 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

testimony to the same by their words, 
and on their breasts that they wish to 
cultivate it with their heart's best affec- 
tions. At the conclusion of the Gospel 
the acolyte says, or the choir chants, 
" Laus tibi, Christe," " Praise to Thee, O 
Christ," for vouchsafing to teach us such 
heavenly doctrines. 

Then (on Sundays and special feasts) 
the " Creed" is intoned, that creed 
which has been recited in the Church 
since the time of the Councils of Nice and 
Constantinople, and when the celebrant 
says the words "et incarnatus est," he 
and all present bend the knee in honor 
of the Incarnation of the Divine Word. 

At the " Offertory" of the bread and 
wine the priest begs of the Almighty to 
accept the sacrifice, which he is about to 
offer, for the remission of his own sins 



and Its Ceremonies. 45 

and those of the people, and for the re- 
freshment of all those souls who departed 
this life in the peace and friendship of 
God. He blesses the bread and wine, 
and beseeches the Holy Spirit to sanctify 
them unto His Holy Name. 

Proceeding to the epistle side, he 
washes the tips of those fingers which 
are to hold the Sacred Host, at the same 
time reciting the " Lavabo " (the twenty- 
fifth psalm), denoting the purity of body 
and soul with which we should assist at 
so holy an action. 

Returning to the middle of the altar, 
he there bows down, begging of the 
ever-blessed Trinity to receive this offer- 
ing in honor of the Passion, Resurrec- 
tion, and Ascension of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, making remembrance also of the 
Blessed Virgin and all the saints, that 



46 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

they may intercede in heaven for us who 
strive to honor their memory here on 
earth. 

Turning towards the people, he recom- 
mends them to pray that his sacrifice 
and theirs may be acceptable in the 
sight of the Almighty; after which he 
intones the " Preface " or introduction to 
the Canon of the Mass, calling upon 
those present to raise their hearts — " Sur- 
sum corda" — and join their praises of 
God with those of the nine choirs of 
angels, concluding with the " Sanctus " 
(Holy, Holy, Holy) in honor of the 
Blessed Trinity. 

Then we come to 

THE CANON OF THE MASS. 

Canon is a Greek word meaning 
u rule," and is applied to this most so- 



and lis Ceremonies. 47 

lemn part of the Mass, which never 
changes, remaining substantially the same 
in all ages and liturgies. 

It is always read by the priest in a 
very low voice, symbolizing the silence 
of our Saviour during the trials of His 
Passion. 

A translation of the Canon is to be 
found in all English missals for the use 
of the laity.. 

The priest beseeches the Father of 
Mercies in behalf of the whole Church, 
the Pope, the bishop of the diocese, the 
Rulers of the country, and all orthodox 
believers. A commemoration is made 
for the living, for those in particular for 
whom the priest offers the Mass, making 
remembrance also of all present at the 
Sacrifice. A solemn commemoration is 
made of the saints in order to honor 



48 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

their memory and beg their intercession, 
after which the priest spreads his hands 
over the bread and wine, as the priests 
of old used to place their hands on the 
heads of the victims to be sacrificed to 
God (vide Book of Leviticus), begging 
of the Almighty to accept the offering 
made to Him, imploring His peace in 
this life, and eternal salvation in the 
next. 

We then come to the very essence of 
the Mass, the 

CONSECRATION, 

when the priest makes use of the very 
words used by Christ Himself, pronounces 
them in His name with His power and 
authority, and thus changes the bread 
into the Body of Christ, and the wine 
into His Blood — the separate consecration 



and Its Ceremonies. 49 

of the sacred species constituting a mys- 
tic immolation. 

The Sacred Host is then elevated, and 
after the Host the Chalice, in memory 
of Christ's elevation on the cross, and in 
order that all the faithful in the church 
may adore Jesus Christ there present 
with his Body and Soul, Humanity and 
Divinity, all under the sacramental veils. 
"As often as ye shall do these things, 
ye shall do them in memory of me." 

After begging of Cod to accept the 
sacrifice from the hands of His High 
Priest, the priest makes a memento for 
the faithful departed, that they may ob- 
tain a place of refreshment, light, and 
peace through Christ our Lord — per 
Christum Domimtm nostrum — all prayers 
in the Mass concluding precisely in the 
same manner, to testify our belief that 



50 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

it is only by virtue of His merits that 
we can obtain any favor whatsoever. 

Then follows the "Pater Noster" — the 
Lords Prayer — always read aloud or 
chanted, after which the celebrant says 
a prayer that we may be delivered from 
all evils, past, present, and to come, and, 
through the intercession of the Blessed 
Virgin and all the saints, be favored with 
peace in our days and secured from all 
sin and disturbance, through Christ our 
Lord. 

The priest breaks the Host, in memory 
of Christ breaking bread before giving it 
to His disciples, and puts a particle in the 
chalice, to represent the reuniting of 
Christ's Body and Soul after the Resur- 
rection, saying : " The peace of the Lord 
be always with you." He recites after 
this the " Agnus Dei" three times: "O 



and Its Ceremonies. 5 1 

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins 
of the world, have mercy on us." Before 
consuming the Sacred Species, he says 
three more preparatory prayers and re- 
peats the centurions " Domine, non sum 
dignus" — "Lord, I am not worthy that 
thou shouldst enter under my roof; but 
only say the word, and my soul shall be 
healed." 

After the Communion, the priest takes 
a little wine into the chalice (which we 
call the first ablution), in order to con- 
sume therewith whatever little drops of 
Sacred Blood may be adhering to the 
chalice, and the second ablutions of wine 
and water, for fear of any sacred particle, 
be it never so small, adhering to his 
fingers. 

When a priest celebrates two Masses, 
he does not take any of the ablutions 



5 2 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

until the end of the second Mass, as a 
priest must be always absolutely fasting 
from midnight whenever he celebrates 
Mass. 

After saying one or more prayers, he 
blesses all present — "May the Almighty 
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost, bless you " — and generally concludes 
the Mass by reading the sublime be- 
ginning of the Gospel of St. John. Then 
all finishes by the acolytes saying, "Deo 
Gratias," in thanksgiving to God for all 
the graces received during the Holy Sacri- 
fice. 

The Mass is said in the 

LATIN LANGUAGE, 

as it is the ancient language of the 
Church. Moreover, it preserves uniformi- 
ty of worship, and is not, like a living 



and Its Ceremonies. 53 

tongue, subject to change or corruption. 
Nor is this of any injury to the faithful, 
as they may always follow the priest, in 
the celebration of Mass, by making use 
of their missals or prayer-books; or, if 
they be unable to read, by meditating on 
the different stages of our Saviour's suffer- 
ings. Hence, no matter what part of the 
world a . Catholic may travel, he is al- 
ways at home, so to speak, in any Catholic 
church during the celebration of Mass. 

Here I thought it would not be out 
of place to quote the beautiful sentiments 
of Johann Ka^par Lavater (a Protestant 
minister of Zurich, who died January 2, 
1 801) on finding himself in a Catholic 
church : 

" He does not know Thee, O Jesus ! who 
dishonors even Thy shadow. I honor all 
things where I find the intention of 



54 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

honoring Thee. What, then, do I behold 
here ? What do I hear in this place ? 
Does nothing under these majestic vaults 
speak to me of Thee? This cross, this 
golden image : is it not made for Thy 
honor? The censer which waves around 
the priest, the * Gloria ' sung in choirs, the 
peaceful light of the perpetual lamp, 
these lighted tapers — all is done for Thee ? 
Why is the Host elevated if it be not 
to honor Thee, O Jesus ! who hast died 
for love of us ? Because it is no more 
bread, it is Thy Body, the believing 
church bends the knee. It is in Thy honor 
alone that these children, early instructed, 
make the sign of the cross, that their 
tongues sing Thy praise, and that they 
thrice strike their breasts with their lit- 
tle hands. It is for love of Thee, O 
Jesus ! that one kisses the spot which 



and Its Ceremonies, 55 

bears Thy adorable Body, that the child 
who serves the altar sounds the little bell 
and performs all that he does. The 
riches collected from distant countries, 
the magnificence of chasubles — all that has 
relation to Thee. Why are the walls and 
the high altar of marble clothed with 
becoming tapestry on the day of the 
Blessed Sacrament ? For whom do they 
make a road of flowers ? For whom are 
all these banners embroidered ? 
Oh! delightful rapture for Thy disciples to 
trace the marks of Thy finger where the 
eyes of the world see them not. Oh ! 
joy ineffable for souls devoted to Thee 
to behold in caves and rocks, in every 
crucifix placed upon the hills and on the 
highways, Thy seal and that of Thy love. 
Who will not rejoice in the honors of 
which Thou art the object and the soul ?" 



56 The Sacrifice of the Mass, 

Such are the sentiments with which 
every Christian should be imbued on 
entering a Catholic church, more parti- 
cularly when the Holy Mass is being 
celebrated. In this great Sacrifice we 
have a standing memorial of the Passion 
and Death of our Saviour, the fruits of 
which are applied to our souls. By 
means of these sacred mysteries we are 
kept united to Christ, and we render to 
the Almighty an unceasing, supreme act 
of worship. 

"When we sacrifice/' says the great 
St. Ambrose, "Christ is present, Christ 
is immolated." 

Hence the splendor of our churches, 
the beauty of our vestments, the impos- 
ing grandeur of our ceremonies, the dis- 
play of lights, the profusion of flowers, 
the religious awe and devotion of the 



and Its Ceremonies. 5 7 

people; all, all have in view the greater 
honor and glory of Jesus Christ, whom 
we believe to be truly and really present 
on our altars, the " Lord to whom be- 
longs the earth and the fulness there- 
of." 




II. 

THE CONFESSIONAL. 

HERE is no subject more uni- 
formly or more persistently 
abused than the "Confes- 
sional." It has been a shining target 
for the shafts of ridicule as well as of 
calumny for the past three hundred and 
fifty years. There is now, and always 
has been during this long period of 
time, an immense amount of ignorance 
displayed whenever this important point 
of Catholic teaching has been discussed 
by those outside the Church. 

With a considerable number of per- 
sons, especially in our time and in this 

58 



The Confessional. 59 

country, the difficulty arises from a mis- 
understanding, or rather from want of 
proper knowledge on the subject If, 
instead of reading the works of our 
enemies, who always misrepresent the 
Church and its doctrines, inquirers would 
consult some authorized Catholic work, 
or take in hand and read carefully, with 
unprejudiced mind, one of even those 
little catechisms to be found in posses- 
sion of our Catholic children, much bit- 
ter and unjust prejudice would be re- 
moved, and we would be seen in our 
true light. 

Now let us enter calmly and thought- 
fully, like earnest men and Christians, 
into an examination of the " Confes- 
sional," the grounds on which it rests, 
the authority on which it is based, the 
wants and desires of the human heart 



6o The Confessional. 

which it so abundantly supplies and ful- 
fils, the immense benefits it confers, not 
only on individuals in particular, but on 
society in general, and we shall learn to 
esteem it according to its true and per- 
fect value. 

Baptism, as is well known, washes 
away all sins from the soul, not only 
original sin, but also all actual sins pre- 
vious to its reception, and remits the 
punishment due to the same. It makes 
a man a child of God and heir to the 
kingdom of heaven, and renders his soul 
pure and spotless in the sight of the Al- 
mighty. But as, unfortunately, the vast 
majority of those once purified in the 
saving waters fail to preserve in after- 
life their baptismal innocence, if there did 
not exist some other remedy, the human 
race would be in as sad a state as be- 



The Confessional. 61 

fore. Our Blessed Saviour, knowing full 
well our poor, frail human nature, and 
that " man is prone to evil from his 
youth," in His infinite goodness and 
mercy instituted another sacrament — " a 
second plank of safety after shipwreck" 
— on which we may lay hold and be 
saved from everlasting ruin. 

Our Divine Lord, as we learn fron\ 
the 1 8th chapter of St. Matthew, after 
denouncing the sin of scandal and com- 
manding that every incorrigible sinner 
should be reported to the Church; "and 
if he will not hear the Church, let him 
be to thee as a heathen and a publican," 
then and there conferred on His Apos- 
tles the divine power of binding and 
loosening ; " Amen I say to you : what- 
soever you shall bind upon earth, shall 
be bound also in heaven ; and whatso- 



62 The Confessional, 

ever you shall loose upon earth, shall be 
loosed also in heaven." He said the 
same to St. Peter in particular (ch. xvi. 
18, 19). This wonderful power He con- 
ferred on the Apostles, and, in them, 
their successors, in still stronger terms 
after His glorious resurrection and ascen- 
sion into heaven : " All power is given 
to Me in heaven and on earth " (St. 
Matt, xxviii. 18); or, as St. John ex- 
presses it (St. John xx. 21): "As the 
Father hath sent Me, I also send you. 
When He had said this, He breathed 
on them; and He said to them: Re- 
ceive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins 
ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them ; 
and whose sins ye shall retain, they are 
retained." 

No human language could be plainer, 
clearer, or more expressive. The same 



The Confessional. 63 

wonderful power and godlike attributes 
received from His Heavenly Father, and 
possessed by Him as the Incarnate God, 
He bestowed on those who were to con- 
tinue His work and govern His holy 
Church after His ascension, and until the 
end of time, when He would come again 
" to judge the living and the dead." 
The most wonderful and most divine of 
all these powers was that of absolving 
from sin : " Whose sins ye shall forgive, 
they are forgiven." This is their war- 
rant, this their authority. It is impos- 
sible, absolutely impossible, to take any 
other meaning from the words of Christ, 
or to twist them to a contrary sense. 

No one can doubt that Christ, as 
God, possessed this power ; but we 
must bear in mind, and He Himself 
tells us most emphatically, that He pos- 



64 The Confessional. 

sessed it also as the " Son of Man," 
when, in confirmation of this declaration, 
He worked a miracle on the paralytic: 
"And behold they brought to Him a 
man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. 
And Jesus seeing their faith, said to the 
man sick of the palsy: 'Son, be of 
good heart, thy sins are forgiven thee.' 
And behold some of the Scribes and 
Pharisees said within themselves : ' This 
man blasphemeth/ And Jesus seeing 
their thoughts, said : ' Why do you 
think evil in your hearts ? Which is 
easier to say, Thy sins are forgiven 
thee; or to say, Rise up and walk? 
But that you may know that the Son of 
man hath power on earth to forgive sins, 
then saith He to the man sick of the 
palsy : ' Rise up, take thy bed and walk/ 
And he rose up and went into his 



The Confessional. 65 

house. And the multitude seeing it, 
feared, and glorified God, who had given 
such power to men" (Matt. ix. 2-8). 

Every one will admit that no man of 
himself has such power. No one can 
deny that God has it; and if God has it, 
is He not omnipotent, and cannot He 
delegate this power to whom He plea- 
ses ? What sane man can refuse to be- 
lieve it?- Had not Christ the power of 
forgiving sins? and, if so, had He not 
the power also of delegating it? That 
He had this power and thus used it is 
evident from His own divine words al- 
ready quoted, and which could not pos- 
sibly be expressed in clearer terms : 
" And heaven and earth shall pass away 
before My words shall fail." 

But some one may say: " Yes, it is 
true, we cannot deny it, the words are 



66 The Confessional. 

too clear ; He conferred this power on 
the Apostles, but on no one else." 

Ah, indeed ! was the Church, then, to 
begin and end with the Apostles ? Was 
there to be no salvation for the count- 
less generations that were to come after 
them? What says Our Blessed Saviour? 
Surely He will give us the answer : 
"All power is given to Me in heaven 
and on earth. Go ye, therefore, teach 
all nations : baptizing them in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe 
all things that I have commanded you : 
and behold I am with you all days, even 
unto the consummation of the world " 
(St. Matt, xxviii. 18-20). The Protes- 
tant version is precisely the same. The 
Apostles were not to live during all 
time ; therefore what was said to them 



The Confessional. 67 

was evidently intended also for their suc- 
cessors in office, who were to continue 
the apostolic work of instructing all na- 
tions, tribes, and peoples. These were 
to have the same power, and to speak 
with the same authority, handed down 
in regular succession in that divine 
Church which Our Lord founded, with 
which He promised to remain during 
all time, directing, guiding, sustaining, 
and enlightening it, and against which 
He most solemnly declared " the gates of 
hell shall never prevail" 

Such was the true, natural, and obvious 
sense in which Our Lords words were 
accepted in His time by the Apostles 
and in every succeeding age by their 
successors, the Fathers and Doctors of 
the Church. As St. Paul said: " Let 
men so look upon us as the ministers of 



68 The Confessional. 

Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries 
of God" (i Cor. iv. i). And do we not 
read in the 19th chapter of the "Acts 
of the Apostles " that " many of those 
who believed came confessing and de- 
claring their deeds"? 

Consult the annals of the Church in 
every age from the very beginning of its 
history, and you will find the same be- 
lief as to the divinity of its institution. 

If the people did not believe that it 
had been established by Christ Himself, 
they never would have received it, would 
never have submitted to such a yoke. 
If it be a human institution, when, where, 
and by whom was it invented? Surely 
these are very important questions, and 
such an event as its invention, did it 
ever happen, would have been altogether 
too important to have passed without 



The Confessional. 69 

notice — too important not to have left 
some trace behind it in the history of 
the times in which it was supposed to 
have taken place. But no such trace 
can be discovered. 

What class of persons, moreover, could 
possibly have any interest in such an 
invention ? Whom could it profit ? The 
priests ? Well, no, for many reasons. 

1st. If the priests, bishops, or popes 
had been the inventors, they would cer- 
tainly have contrived to exempt them- 
selves from the painful and humiliat- 
ing ordeal of confessing their own sins. 
Priests, bishops, and even popes, have 
to submit to the same law like the 
humblest and lowliest of their flock. The 
only difference is that they go to the 
holy tribunal more frequently than the 
members of the laity, as they stand in 



Jo The Confessional. 

need of greater purity for the perform- 
ance of their, sacred functions. 

2dly. It is the most painful, the most 
laborious, the most fatiguing of all the 
priests' duties, more especially in the 
larger parishes. But perhaps some very 
ignorant or very malicious person may 
say ; " They get paid for it." A more 
diabolical falsehood was never uttered. 
Never, in the history of the Church, 
was it lawful to accept any money what- 
soever for the hearing of confessions and 
the granting of absolution. It would be 
justly considered one of the most hein- 
ous crimes and sacrileges that could be 
committed, and would be visited by the 
heaviest penalties the Church could in- 
flict. I never read or heard of such a 
case, and it is too ridiculous to treat 
seriously. 



The Confessional. 71 

Suppose then that, at any given period 
of the history of the Church, the ecclesi- 
astical authorities took it into their heads 
to establish the Confessional and then 
announced it to the body of the faithful ; 
select any age you like, or a particular 
year in any century. Do you think that 
the people would ever have submitted 
to such a heavy burden, would willing- 
ly have subjected themselves to such a 
humiliating ordinance ? Whoever does, 
has a far different idea of human nature 
than the most of intelligent persons. 

Those who lived in the third, the 
sixth, the tenth, or the thirteenth century 
had the very same passions, as much 
human pride as the men of this nine- 
teenth century, and would have been 
just as rebellious under what they would 
have believed to be an ecclesiastical im- 



72 The Confessional. 

position. Hence they would never have 
bowed down to such a law, did they 
not know and believe that it was es- 
tablished by Christ Himself. 

Some individuals have gone so far as 
to say that the Confessional was estab- 
lished by the Church in the Fourth 
Council of Lateran, a.d. 12 15, but that 
Council only fixed the limit of time 
beyond which it would be reckoned a 
grievous sin to neglect the Sacrament of 
Penance. 

In the first ages of the Church, the 
piety and zeal of the faithful needed no 
spur to the performance of their duty 
in this respect, since they approached 
the Sacraments every day, or at least 
every week ; but when the fervor of the 
people diminished and their charity grew 
cold, it was deemed necessary to estab- 



The Confessional. 73 

lish the law of Confession and Com- 
munion, to be complied with at least 
once a year, and then at Easter or 
thereabout, under pain of excommunica- 
tion. 

That the Confessional existed from the 
time of Christ and His Apostles, the 

TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 

and Doctors of the early Church, which 
I shall now quote, will clearly and amply 
demonstrate. 

In the first few centuries of the Chris- 
tian era, so great was the piety of the 
faithful that they generally made their 
confessions publicly and underwent public 
penance for their sins. This was the cus- 
tom until thirty years after St. Augus- 
tine's time, when Pope Leo abolished it, 
for fear of scandal and disedification. 



74 The Confessional. 

Let us begin with the twelfth century, 
and select a testimony here and there 
among the different ages until we reach 
the immediate disciples of the Apostles. 

Pierre de Blois (who died a.d. 1200) 
thus speaks; "Let no one say to him- 
self, I confess in secret and I do pen- 
ance in the sight of God ; if such a 
confession were sufficient, ' the keys ' 
were in vain given to Peter. Does 
shame prevent you from confessing? If 
so, remember that your conscience will 
be exposed before all men in the day of 
judgment' {Tract* de Conf. Sacrani). 

The very essence of the Sacrament of 
Penance is given in very few words by 
Richard of St. Victor (died a.d. 11 73): 
"Vera pcenitentia est abominatio peccati 
cum voto cavendi, confitendi, satisfaci- 
endi " — having a horror for sin, with 



The ConfessionaL 75 

the resolution of being more watchful, 
making confession and rendering due 
satisfaction. 

" Of what advantage is it," says the 
great St. Bernard, "to declare but a 
certain number of your sins and to con- 
ceal the remainder ? All things are nak- 
ed and open to the eyes of God, and 
how dare you conceal anything from 
Him who holds the place of God in so 
great a sacrament ?" 

" Non salvemini nisi confiteamini " — you 
will not be saved unless you confess — 
says Hugo of St. Victor. 

St. Anselm, who was Archbishop of Can- 
terbury in the beginning of the twelfth 
century, declares that " we should go to 
the priests and beg absolution." The 
great Doctor of the Church, St. Peter 
Damian, says that " to be ashamed of 



J6 The Confessional. 

confessing our sins is to fear God less 
than man." 

" We have observed," declared the 
Fathers of the Second Council of Cha- 
lons, a.d. 813, "something which needs 
to be corrected, namely, that certain in- 
dividuals in making their confession do 
not do so with necessary integrity. 
They should examine their sins with 
care and attention in order that it 
should be full and entire." 

The Venerable Bede, who flourished in 
the beginning of the eighth century in 
England, thus discourses : " We should 
distinguish between slight faults and sins 
of more weight; as to the former, we 
may usefully confess them before our 
equals in order to obtain their prayers 
and receive correction ; but as for the 
latter, in order to fulfil the law, we 



The Confessional. jy 

should necessarily confess them to the 
priest." 

FATHER CONFESSORS IN THE EARLY AGES. 

St. Viron was confessor to King 
Pepin ; St. Aidan, to King Brandubh ; 
St. Martin, a monk of Corbia, to the 
great Charles Martel ; St. Aldric, Bishop 
of Mans, to Louis le Debonnaire ; St. 
Udalric, Bishop of Augsburg, to the Em- 
peror Otho; and Arteldulf, prior of St. 
Oswald, to Henry I. of England. 

Charlemagne made it a rule that every 
regiment should have its father confessor. 

William of Somerset, a monk of Mal- 
mesbury, praises the Normans for having 
spent the night before battle in confess- 
ing their sins. 

A council held in Kent, a.d. 787, for- 
bade prayers to be said for those who, 



78 The CofifessionaL 

through their own fault, died without 
confessing their sins. 

" Let each one prove himself," says St. 
Paulinus (eighth century), ''before receiv- 
ing the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. 
Before approaching let us have recourse, 
as is our duty, to confession and pen- 
ance ; let us examine with care all our 
works, and if we remark in ourselves 
whatever is capable of causing us to ab- 
stain from receiving, let us hasten to re- 
move it by confession and true penance, 
for fear that, like Judas the traitor, har- 
boring the devil within us, we may 
perish." 

Lactantius declares that "That is to be 
known as the true church in which are 
to be found confession and penance." 

Alcuin, the preceptor of the Emperor 
Charlemagne, wrote a work against; the 



The Confessional. 79 

heretics of his time who denied the ne- 
cessity of confession. 

Tertullian, who lived in the age follow- 
ing that of the Apostles, says ? in his 
great work De Pcenitentia : 

" I think that many decline confessing 
their faults, or delay it from day to day, 
more moved by fear of shame than care 
of their salvation ; like unto those who, 
afflicted with secret diseases, conceal their 
malady from the physicians, and perish 
from false modesty and bashfulness. 
What advantage can be derived from 
the hiding of our crime ; for if we 
succeed in having it escape the know- 
ledge of men, can we conceal it from 
God ? " 

That man of wonderful learning, Ori- 
gen, says: "We must have recourse to 
confession in order that we may be freed 



80 The Confessional. 

from our sins" (Second Homily on 
Thirty-seventh Psalm). 

St, Basil (who died in the year 378) 
gives a similar testimony: "We should 
confess to those to whom the dispensation 
of the mysteries of God is accredited," 

It is related in the life of St. Ambrose 
that when he heard the confessions of 
his penitents, he wept so much over the 
recital of their sins as to cause them- 
selves to weep. We shall conclude these 
testimonies by the declarations of the two 
great Doctors of the Church, St. Augus- 
tine and St. John Chrysostom, the former 
the greatest light of the Western, as the 
other was of the Eastern Church: "Let 
no one say," says St. Augustine, "that 'I 
do penance in private and in the sight of 
God. God who pardons me knows the 
sorrow of my heart/ Was it therefore 



The Confessional. 81 

said in vain: 'Whatsoever ye shall bind 
upon earth shall be bound also in hea- 
ven'? Were the keys given in vain to 
the Church of God? Shall we render 
fruitless the Gospel of God and the 
words of Christ?" (Horn. 49). 

" God granted unto the priests of the 
New Law," says St. Chrysostom, in his 
work " De Sacerdotio," "what was never 
granted to angels or archangels, for never 
was it said to them, ' Whatsoever ye 
shall bind on earth shall be bound also 
in heaven/" 

So we perceive very clearly what 
ample proof we find in the Sacred Scrip- 
tures and in the writings of the fathers 
of the Church for the Catholic doctrine 
of the Confessional. We see also from 
the very words of the divine commission, 
" Whose sins ye shall forgive, they are 



82 The Confessional. 

forgiven them, and whose sins ye shall 
retain, they are retained," that the 
power thus conferred is a discretionary- 
one, not, therefore, to be exercised ac- 
cording to the whim, fancy, or caprice of 
its possessors, but according to prudence 
and judgment. 

How may this be done? By no other 
possible way than through the Confes- 
sional ; for the case of each one must be 
carefully examined, his sins and the num- 
ber of them, their gravity, their malice, 
the character and dispositions of the pen- 
itent; and then, and only then, is judg- 
ment to be pronounced. 

THE PRIEST IN THE CONFESSIONAL 

is a spiritual judge and spiritual physi- 
cian. No judge worthy of the name 
will ever pass sentence without examin- 



The Confessional. 83 

ing the whole case in all its bearings; so 
the priest must make himself, as much 
as possible, acquainted with his penitent, 
his passions, his inclinations, the causes 
of his fall, and all this under the seal of 
the most inviolable secrecy. 

He is also a spiritual physician. No 
good physician will prescribe for his 
patient without making a proper diag- 
nosis, or, in other words, without knowing 
clearly what is the disease, how far it has 
developed, what are all the symptoms, what 
remedies it is necessary to order, what 
diet and what mode of living he should 
counsel. So, likewise, the penitent should 
make known to his spiritual adviser the 
state of his soul, its hidden sores, its 
weaknesses, its failings and perverse in- 
clinations, in order that he may receive 
such counsel and advice as will be neces- 



84 The Confessional. 

sary or beneficial for the welfare of his 
immortal soul. 

Even if God and his Church had not or- 
dered it, nature itself would seem to demand 
the institution of such a tribunal. When 
the poor, weary, overburdened heart feels 
itself oppressed, it instinctively seeks for 
an outlet to its grief and sorrow in some 
such channel as is thoughtfully prescribed 
by Holy Mother Church. 

How beautifully and truthfully is this 

great need of the human heart portrayed 

1 

in 

hawthorne's " marble faun," 

where the heroine of his story, after suf- 
fering untold anguish, is irresistibly im- 
pelled, Protestant though she be, to enter 
a confessional box in St. Peter's Church, 
Rome, and there unburden herself of 



The Confessional. 85 

the terrible secret that was eating into 
her very life. 

"THE WORLD'S CATHEDRAL. 

" Gliding onward, Hilda now looked 
up into the dome, where the sunshine 
came through the western windows and 
threw across long shafts of light. They 
rested upon the mosaic figures of two 
evangelists above the cornice. These 
great beams of radiance, traversing what 
seemed the empty space, were made visi- 
ble in misty glory by the holy cloud of 
incense, else unseen, which had risen into 
the middle dome. It was to Hilda as 
if she beheld the worship of the priest 
and people ascending heavenward, pu- 
rified from its alloy of earth, and ac- 
quiring celestial substance in the golden 
atmosphere to which it aspired. She 



86 The Confessional. 

wondered if angels did not sometimes 
hover within the dome, and show them- 
selves, in brief glimpses, floating amid the 
sunshine and the glorified vapor, to those 
who devoutly worshipped on the pavement. 
" She had now come into the south- 
ern transept Around this portion of 
the church are ranged a number of con- 
fessionals. They are small tabernacles of 
carved wood, with a closet for the priest 
in the centre ; and, on either side, a 
space for a penitent to kneel, and breathe 
his confession through a perforated au- 
ricle into the good father's ear. Observ- 
ing this arrangement, though already fa- 
miliar to her, our poor Hilda was anew 

impressed with the infinite convenience 

» 

— if we may use so poor a phrase — of 
the Catholic religion to its devout be- 
lievers. 



The Confessional 87 

" Who, in truth, that considers the 
matter, can resist a similar impression ? 
In the hottest fever-fit of life they can 
always find, ready for their need, a cool, 
quiet, beautiful place of worship. They 
may enter its sacred precincts at any 
hour, leaving the fret and trouble of the 
world behind them, and purifying them- 
selves with a touch of holy water at 
the threshold. In the calm interior, fra- 
grant of rich and soothing incense, they 
may hold converse with some saint, 
their awful, kindly friend. And, most 
precious privilege of all, whatever per- 
plexity, sorrow, guilt, may weigh upon 
their souls, they can fling down the 
dark burden at the foot of the Cross, 
and go forth to sin no more, nor be any 
longer disquieted; but to live . again in 
the freshness and elasticity of innocence. 



88 The Confessional. 

' Do not these inestimable advantages,' 
thought Hilda, 'or some of them, at least, 
belong to Christianity itself? Are they 
not a part of the blessings which the 
system was meant to bestow upon man- 
kind? Can the faith in which I was 
born and bred be perfect, if it leave a 
weak girl like me to wander, desolate, 
with this great trouble crushing me 
down ? ' A poignant anguish thrilled 
within her breast; it was like a thing 
that had life, and was struggling to get 
out ... In this vast and hospit- 
able cathedral, worthy to be the religious 
heart of the whole world, there was room 
for all nations ; there was access to the 
Divine Grace for every Christian soul ; 
there was an ear for what the overbur- 
dened heart might have to murmur, speak 
in what native tongue it would. When 



The Confessional. 89 

Hilda had almost completed the circuit 
of the transept, she came to a Confes- 
sional — the central part was closed, but 
a mystic rod protruded from it, indi- 
cating the presence of a priest within, 
on which was inscribed : ' Pro Anglica 
Lingua/ It was the word in season ! 
If she had heard her mothers voice from 
within the tabernacle calling her, in her 
own mother-tongue, to come and lay her 
poor head in her lap, and sob out all 
her troubles, Hilda could not have re- 
sponded with a more inevitable obedi- 
ence. She did not think, she only felt. 
Within her heart was a great need. 
Close at hand, within the veil of the 
Confessional, was the relief She flung 
herself down in the penitents place, and, 
tremulously, passionately, with sobs, tears, 
and the turbulent overflow of emotion 



90 The Confessional. 

too long- repressed, she poured out the 
dark story which had infused its poison 
into her innocent life. . . . And, ah, 
what a relief! When the hysteric gasp, 
the strife between words and sobs, had 
subsided, what a torture had passed away 
from her soul! It was all gone; her 
bosom was as pure now as in her child- 
hood." 

No Catholic could give a more per- 
fect picture than this of the natural 
longing of the human heart for sich a 
divine institution as the Confessional. 

Count De Maistre, speaking on the 
same subject, says: "The stomach which 
contains poison and which throws itself 
into a convulsion in order to reject it, 
is the natural image of a heart into 
which crime has poured its venom. It 
suffers, it labors, it contracts itself until 



The Confessional. 91 

it reaches the ear of friendship, or at 
least that of benevolence. " 

How beautifully and faithfully the Holy 
Church of God accommodates itself to 
the wants and desires of the human soul, 
no want being left unsatisfied, no desire 
unfulfilled. Gifted with the divine wis- 
dom of its Holy Founder, it comes to 
our rescue in every difficulty, it provides 
a remedy for every disease of the soul ; 
it is a source of strength for every 
weakness, and of comfort for every sor- 
row. It has none but words of cheer in 
all our sadness and discouragement, and 
advice and consolation in all our trials 
and temptations. It has a salve for 
every hidden sore, a soothing balm for 
every affliction, a refreshing bath of 
soul-cleansing waters in the holy Sacra- 
ment of Penance. 



92 The Confessional. 

In this Sacrament, besides Confession, 
there are two other essential parts, 
namely, contrition and satisfaction. 

Contrition is a sincere, deep, and heart- 
felt sorrow for all our sins, because they 
are displeasing to God, who is infinitely 
good in Himself and infinitely good to 
us; and, moreover, because by them we 
lose all right to heaven and deserve 
eternal punishment. This sorrow neces- 
sarily includes a firm purpose of amend- 
ment. Without this sorrow or contrition 
no absolution pronounced by a priest is 
of any value whatsoever. So necessary is 
it, that not even God Himself can dis- 
pense us from this requisite disposition. 

When the sorrow is perfect, or proceeds 
from the pure love of God, and is joined 
with the expressed or implied desire of 
sacramental absolution, it justifies the 



The Confessional. 93 

sinner immediately. Such has always 
been the teaching of the Church, as may 
be clearly seen from the decrees of the 
(Ecumenical Council of Trent, session 
14, ch. iv. 

Besides contrition, the other requisite 
quality is satisfaction. Hence, if any injury 
have been done to any one in character, 
person, or property, full reparation must 
be made to the entire extent of the peni- 
tent's ability. If the penitent be in un- 
just possession of any property whatso- 
ever, there is no forgiveness, and no 
hope of it, until that property be re- 
stored to its rightful owner. Even were 
the confessor deceived in such a case, 
so as to give absolution, it would be 
absohttely null and void. Nor would it 
suffice to give the property or its equiva- 
lent in charity or for any pious object, 



94 The Confessional. 

if the real owner were known or could 
be easily discovered. Restitution should 
then be made to him and to him only 
— to satisfy the law. 

God alone knows the countless resti u- 
tions that have been made through the 
Confessional, the innumerable reparations 
effected, the causes of scandal removed, 
private enmities overcome, revenge sub- 
dued and heinous crimes prevented. 

It is the great guardian of the morals 
of the youth of both sexes. Rising pas- 
sions are checked or kept under control, 
and vice is nipped in the bud. Inno- 
cence is preserved from many fatal snares, 
or, if it have been unfortunately lost, 
the penitent is saved from despair and 
headlong ruin and restored to God's 
grace and friendship. The young man 
is warned on the very threshold of life, 



The Confessional. 95 

the young woman is rescued from the 
proximate occasion of sin, and the dan- 
gers of a sinful life are pointed out 
to all. 

Preaching from the altar or pulpit has 
not and cannot have the same powerful 
effect as the word spoken in season, 
and whispered into the ear of the indi- 
vidual penitent by the Minister of God 
in the sacred tribunal. That is the place 
for special warnings and instructions 
adapted to the widely different wants, 
dangers, and necessities of the penitents. 
There the means are pointed out and 
the remedies prescribed for the preven- 
tion or cure of the maladies of the 
soul. 

" I look upon a pious, earnest, and 
discreet confessor," says the eminent 
Protestant writer Leibnitz, "as a great 



96 The Confessional. 

instrument in the hands of God for the 
salvation of souls ; for his counsels serve 
to direct our affections, to enlighten us 
as to our faults, to help us avoid occa- 
sions of sin, to dissipate doubts, to raise 
the downcast spirit — in fact, to remove 
or mitigate all diseases of the soul ; 
and if we can hardly find anything on 
earth more excellent than a faithful 
friend, what happiness to find one who 
shall be bound by the inviolable religion 
of a divine Sacrament to preserve the 
faith and to succor souls." 

Never yet in the long history of the 
Church, has there been found one case, 
well authenticated, of the seal of the Con- 
fessional having been violated. Priests 
have fallen from grace and even abandon 
ed the faith ; but no matter how low they 
have fallen, they were never yet known 



The Confessional. 97 

to reveal the secrets of the Confessional. 
A priest can never make any use what- 
ever — to the slightest detriment of the 
penitent — of any revelation made to him 
through the sacred tribunal. No law, 
human or divine, can oblige him to 
make the slightest disclosure. 

St. John Nepomucene suffered a glori- 
ous martyrdom, and is thereby honored 
on our altars, because he would not 
make known to the king the confession 
of his spouse the queen. He preferred 
a cruel death to the violation of the 
sacred seal. 

The very infidels themselves are forced 

to give their testimony in favor of the 

Confessional. Voltaire says : " It is a 
divine institution, which has had its 

origin only in the infinite mercy of its 

Author " (tome xxxiv. page 36). He said, 



98 The Confessional. 

moreover, that "the enemies of the 
Roman Church, who have opposed so 
beneficial an institution, have taken from 
man the greatest restraint that can be 
put on crime " (Diet. Phil., art. "Cate- 
chisme de Cure "). 

" A well-informed man," says Gibbon, 
" cannot resist the weight of historical evi- 
dence which goes to establish that con- 
fession was one of the principal points of 
papist doctrine in all the period of the 
four first centuries." 

Lord Fitzwilliam {Letters of Atticus) 
says that "it is impossible to establish 
virtue, justice, and morality on a solid 
basis without the tribunal of penance." 

Now let us give the testimony of one 
of our own, the truly Catholic Eugenie de 
Guerin, from her famous Journal: "The 
world does not know what a confessor is 



The Confessio7iaL 99 

to one : the man who is a friend of the 
soul, its most intimate confidant, its phy- 
sician, its master, its light; he who binds 
and looses, who gives us peace, who 
opens the gates of heaven ; to whom we 
speak upon our knees, calling him as we 
do God, our father; nay, faith makes him 
in very deed God and Father to us, 
When I am at his feet, I see in him only 
Jesus Christ listening to the Magdalen 
and forgiving her much because she has 
loved much." 

It is said in the Divine Book that 
"there is joy before the angels of God 
over one sinner doing penance" How the 
angels of God then must cluster around 
the Confessional, watching with . eager 
joy their precious charges emerge from 
the holy tribunal with happiness beaming 
on their countenances and "a peace that 



ioo The Confessional. 

surpasseth all understanding" filling their 
minds and hearts to overflowing, with 
those words of divine cheer ringing in 
their ears, the words of God's own sacred 
minister to each penitent soul : " Beloved 
child, thy sins are forgiven thee. Go in 
peace and sin no more." 




III. 

THE INTERCESSION OF SAINTS. 

HE most consoling of all the 
doctrines of the Catholic 
Church is the Communion of 
Saints. How perfect the accord, how 
grand the harmony, of the whole system 
of dogma ! No discord, no jarring, no 
contradiction, but a complete nexus be- 
tween all the parts of the divine whole 
— a marvellous unity and a perfect chain 
of connected truths. 

What a grand and sublime idea we 
cannot but form of the Church — one body 
of which Christ Our Lord is the Head, 
and all its members in their different 



102 The Intercession of Saints. 

states joined together by the bonds of 
an unbroken, undying charity ! 

How deeply affecting and powerfully 
encouraging is the thought and the be- 
lief that our present course in this 
weary, sinful world, is being momenta- 
rily watched by the blessed spirits, who 
reign with God in the heavens above ; 
that they take the deepest interest in 
our eternal welfare, more especially 
those disembodied spirits of "the just 
made perfect " who once passed through 
the same struggles on earth ; that they 
pray for us and intercede for us with 
the good God ! How we also, weak, 
frail mortals that we are, can be of help 
to others, more particularly to those who 
departed this life in the friendship of 
the Almighty, and who are not yet 
sufficiently purified to enter the " Holy 



The httercession of Saints. 103 

of Holies," where nothing the least 
defiled can gain access, as we are told 
by St. John in the Apocalypse. 

Behold, then, the bond — the wonderful, 
divine bond of charity, which unites us 
all, whether in heaven above, the earth 
beneath, or the expiatory prison-house of 
purgatory. 

I shall now endeavor to explain one 
part of this admirable communion — that 
is, the relations existing between us and 
the Saints of God ; the foundations upon 
what this pure and consoling belief rests, 
and the wonderful advantages it confers 
on the faithful Christian. 

After some preliminary remarks, we 
shall see what warrant there is for this 
dogma in the Sacred Scriptures. 

The chief idea of this doctrine is that 
the Saints of God, being purer and holier 



104 The Intercession of Saints. 

than we, and having attained their eternal 
happiness in an everlasting union with the 
Almighty, we believe that their prayers 
on our behalf are more pleasing and ac- 
ceptable in His sight than our own poor, 
unaided petitions can expect to be. 

The clear, unmistakable words of the 
Church itself on this subject, in the 
celebrated Council of Trent, leave nothing 
to be desired as to the meaning of the 
dogma: 

"It is good to consider," says Bossuet 
(in his Exposition of Catholic FaitJi), 
" the words of the Council itself, which, 
wishing to prescribe to bishops how they 
should speak of the 'Intercession of 
Saints/ obliges them to teach that ' the 
Saints who reign with Jesus Christ offer 
to God their prayers for men ; that it 
is good and useful to invoke them in 



The Intercession of Saints. 105 

a suppliant manner, and to have recourse 
to their aid and succor, in order to be- 
seech God for His favors, through His 
Son Jesus Christ, who alone is our Sa- 
viour and Redeemer/ " Per Filium ejus 
Jesum Christum Dominum Nostrum, qui 
solus noster ~Redemptor et Salvator est: 
these are the very words of the Council, 
than which nothing can be plainer or 
clearer, or farther from the idea of idola- 
try or superstition. 

No injury is done to the Creator, 
there is no derogation from His laws, no 
abridgment of His rights, in the honor 
and reverence we pay the Holy Ones 
of God. 

SUPREME WORSHIP 

is due to God alone, and to offer it to 
any creature, no matter howsoever ele- 



106 The Intercession of Saints. 

vated, be it to the highest of the Sera- 
phim or to the Mother of God herself, 
would be the fearful crime of idolatry. 

We adore God alone, as He is the 
Author of life, the Creator of all things, 
the Supreme Master, Director, and Go- 
vernor of the universe. We adore not 
the Angels, we adore not the Saints, we 
adore not the Virgin Mother. We never 
offer the Sacrifice of the Mass to them, 

but to the Eternal, Living, and True 
God — " ^Eterno Deo, vivo et vero." Mass 

may be said, and is often said, in honor 
of the Saints, but is never offered to 
them. 

In reverencing them, in paying them a 
certain limited homage or worship, we 
but reverence the very gifts of God Him- 
self. Whatever they have or possess in 
the way of virtue, grace, or glory they 



The Intercession of Saints. 107 

have received from Him who is " the 
Giver of every good and perfect gift." 

In praising the saints we honor the 
very creations of God. "Mirabilis Deus 
in Sanctis suis" — "God is wonderful in his 
saints," says the Psalmist. They are His 
friends — " I call you no more servants, 
but friends"; they are His intimates. 
They " fought the good fight " in His 
cause here, they triumphed over the 
world, over the evil ones in high places, 
and over their evil passions, with the help 
of God's grace; now their salvation is 
secure, now . their labors are rewarded ; 
they have already received their crown, 
and now they glory in the presence of 
their Lord and their God. They have 
no longer any anxiety for their own 
souls' salvation, but they take the deep- 
est interest in ours ; they are ever ready 



io8 The Intercession of Saints, 

to help and assist us, and to beseech the 
Almighty in our behalf. 

Nor is it displeasing to Him, but, on 
the contrary, most agreeable in His 
sight, that we should invoke their aid. 

The Almighty, as a rule, never seems to 
work directly either in the natural or the 
supernatural wprld. He ordains or per- 
mits, as the cases may require, secondary 
agents to carry out His designs. He 
has His ministering spirits, His angels, 
His messengers, constantly accomplishing, 
throughout the whole universe, His most 
merciful and beneficent designs. 

As in the natural order, so also in the 
supernatural — we all depend on one an- 
other for mutual aid, assistance, and sup- 
port. Each one has his appointed work 
to do ; as in the human frame all the 
members form but one body, and though 



The Intercession of Saints, 109 

each has its own function to perform yet 
they are mutually dependent. This is 
beautifully described by St. Paul in his 
First Epistle to the Corinthians (ch. xii. 

H-3o). 

There is a hierarchy in heaven, there 
is a hierarchy on earth. There are dif- 
ferent orders having different offices, and 
a mutual dependence existing between 
them. 

How many persons there are whose 
salvation and sanctification may depend, 
to a considerable extent, on our prayers 
and good example ! How much we our- 
selves owe to others for the many graces 
we have received we shall never know 
until we stand before Gods tribunal. 

" There are many things," says the 
great St. Augustine, " which God does 
not grant without a mediator and inter- 



I io The Intercession of Saints. 

cessor." The Almighty has so willed it ; 
it is the order of His Divine Providence, 
to which we are all subject, and we know 
and believe that u He doth all things well." 

If we consult the Old as well as the 
New Testament, we shall find ample 
proofs of this doctrine. 

In the Book of Genesis (ch. xx. 7) we 
read that God warned Abimelech, King 
of Gerara, that he was to obtain his par- 
don only through the intercession of 
Abraham — " He shall pray for thee, and 
thou shalt live." 

When God was about to destroy the 
people of Israel on account of their idola- 
try they were saved only through the 
prayers of Moses (Exodus xxxii.) 

The friends of Job could only obtain 
pardon after he should pray for them. 
(i Go to my servant Job, and offer for 



The Intercession of Saints, 1 1 1 

yourselves a holocaust, and my servant 
Job shall pray for you ; his face I will 
accept, that folly be not imputed to you" 
(Job xlii. 8). 

The angel who appeared to Josue (v. 
14) said that he was " The prince of the 
host of the Lord," and commanded him 
to loose the shoes from off his feet, which 
Josue did, falling on his face and worship- 
ping him, as the Scriptures declare. (" Fell 
on his face and did worship," according 
to the Protestant version.) Of course it 
was not divine worship, but that kind of 
inferior worship or homage which we 
Catholics pay to the angels and saints. 

The blessed spirits are ministers and 
counsellors of God. " Thousands of thou- 
sands ministered unto Him; and ten thou- 
sand times a hundred thousand stood be- 
fore Him" (Daniel vii. 10). " All the 



1 1 2 The Intercession of Saints. 

army of heaven standing by Him on the 
right hand and on the left" (xxii. 19). 

Cities, provinces, and kingdoms are 
placed under their guardianship and pro- 
tection. " The prince of the kingdom of 
the Persians resisted me one-and-twen- 
ty days; and behold Michael, one of the 
chief princes, came to help me," said the 
angel to the prophet Daniel (x. 13). 
" I will tell you what is set down in the 
scripture of truth, and none is my help- 
er in all these things but Michael, your 
prince" (verse 21). St. Michael has al- 
ways been considered as the Guardian 
Angel of the Church of God. 

St. Paul declares that the Lord Jesus 
" shall come to be glorified in His saints, 
and to be made wonderful in all them 
that have believed " (2 Thess. i. 10). 
Our Blessed Saviour said to His Apostles 



The Intercession of Saints. i T3 

that " all those who followed him in the 
regeneration, when the Son of man shall 
sit on the seat of His majesty, shall sit 
on twelve seats judging the twelve 
tribes of Israel" (Matt. xix. 28). 

The angel Raphael declared to Tobias 
(xii. 12) that he was the spirit who of- 
fered his prayers and good works to the 
Almighty. 

St. John gives the following testimony 
in the Apocalypse : " Another angel came 
and stood before the altar, having a gol- 
den censer; and there was given to him 
much incense, that he should offer of the 
prayers of all saints upon the golden al- 
tar, which is before the throne of God. 
And the smoke of the incense of the 
prayers of the saints ascended up before 
God, from the hand of the angel " (viii. 
3> 4). 



1 14 The Intercession of Saints. 

The Apostle St. James tells us (ch. v) 
that " the continual prayer of a just man 
availeth much," and we have proofs of it 
in the cases already cited of Abraham, 
Moses, and Job. If their prayers avail- 
ed much .when they were here upon 
earth, how much more so now that they 
are in an immeasurably closer union 
with God in the land of the blessed ! 
If asking the intercession of saints be 
injurious to God and the infinite merits 
of Christ, much more so would it be to 
ask the prayers or beg the intercession 
of our fellow-men on earth, poor, miser- 
able sinners like ourselves, or, if they be 
just men, certainly liable at any time to 
lose their justice; and yet St. Paul dis- 
dained not, time after time, to ask the 
prayers of his fellow-Christians: " I be- 
seech you, therefore, brethren, through 



The Intercession of Saints. 1 1 5 

our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the cha- 
rity of the Holy Ghost, that you assist 
me in your prayers for me to God " 
(Romans xv. 30). 

The Book of Ecclesiasticus, from the 
forty-fourth to the fiftieth chapters inclu- 
sively, is filled with the praises of the 
saints. ■ 

See also the fifteenth chapter of the 
Second Book of Machabees, wherein it 
is related that Onias the high-priest 
and Jeremias the prophet appeared in a 
vision to Judas Machabeus. " Now the 
vision was in this manner : Onias, who 
had been high-priest, a good and vir- 
tuous man, modest in his looks, gentle 
in his manners, and graceful in his 
speech, and exercised from a child in 
all virtues, holding up his hands, prayed 
for all the people of the Jews. After 



1 1 6 The Intercession of Saints. 

this there appeared also another man, ad- 
mirable for age and glory, and environed 
with great beauty and majesty. Then 
Onias answering, said : This is a lover 
of his brethren, and of the people of Is- 
rael : this is he that prayeth much for 
the people, and for all the holy city, Je- 
remias the prophet of God." 

Thus the sacred Scriptures afford a 
solid foundation for the reverence we pay 
to the saints and the utility of invoking 
their intercession. 

We have the testimonies also of the 
Holy Fathers showing 

THE BELIEF AND PRACTICE OF THE EARLY 

CHURCH, 

and proving, moreover, how the Almighty 
favored this doctrine, by most wonder- 
ful miracles, attested and authenticated 



The Intercession of Saints. 1 1 7 

by irreproachable witnesses, by some of 
the greatest lights that ever appeared 
above the horizon of this earth — men 
who were noted no less for their pro- 
found erudition and vast acquirements 
than for their wonderful holiness and 
apostolic virtues. 

The language which they used is much 
stronger than ours in reference to the 
power of intercession of the saints and 
the deep reverence to be paid their re- 
lics. If we are to be accused of idola- 
try, much more so may they be accused 
of the same, and we would then be ob- 
liged to come to the conclusion that our 
Blessed Saviour had scarcely left the 
earth before that Church, which He pro- 
mised to sustain until the end of time 
against all the assaults of hell, fell into 
an idolatry as deep as that in which 



1 1 8 The Intercession of Saints. 

the Gentiles were plunged before His 
advent. 

The holy Fathers believed, exactly as 
we do now, that whatever honor, what- 
ever reverence, whatever worship, in its 
more restricted sense, was paid to the 
saints redounded to God's greater glory 
— that His honor suffered no diminution, 
that confidence in Jesus Christ and His 
infinite merits was by no means lessened 
or impaired, but, on the contrary, increas- 
ed, as the saints could never have merit- 
ed were it not for the Sacrifice of Cal- 
vary. 

Let us give a glance at the testimo- 
nies of the Fathers from the very dawn 
of Christianity, and we shall see that 
the teaching of the Catholic Church has 
never varied on this important point of 
doctrine. 



The hifercession of Saints. 1 1 9 

St. Polycarp, the first bishop of 
Smyrna, was a disciple of St. John the 
Evangelist, the cherished apostle of the 
Lord. We find the account of his mar- 
tyrdom related in the Epistle of the 
Church of Smyrna to the Church of 
Pontus, and contained in the history of 
Eusebius, who is called the " Father of 
Ecclesiastical History/' We there read 
that Polycarp having been sentenced to 
be burned, the flames, by a miracle of 
God, suspended their activity in his re- 
gard; whereupon the executioner, becom- 
ing impatient, plunged his sword into 
the body of the martyr, whose blood 
rushed out in such a stream as to ex- 
tinguish the fire. For fear that the 
Christians might take away his body 
and worship it, as the governor was 
told by the Jews who were present, he 



I2G The Intercession of Saints. 

ordered it to be reduced to ashes, and 
there were left but a few remnants of 
the bones, which the faithful gathered 
with the greatest reverence and with 
far greater care than if they had been 
gold and precious stones — " Gemmis 
pretiosissimis cariora et quovis auro po~ 
tiora." Removing the remains to a 
proper place, where they were reverent- 
ly deposited, the faithful assembled there 
every year to celebrate with every de- 
monstration of joy — "cum hilaritate et 
gaudio" — the anniversary of the glorious 
martyr (lib. iv. Hist. EccL cap. 15.) 
We there see devotion to the saints, 
veneration of relics, celebration of feast- 
days, the same in the very first age of 
the Church as we behold now in the 
nineteenth century. 

The same author relates the conver- 



The Intercession of Saints. 1 2 1 

sion and martyrdom of St. Basilides, 
which took place in his own age (the 
third century). Basilides was one of the 
pagan guards who led St. Potimiana to 
martyrdom, and having, on the way to 
the place of execution, shielded her from 
insult, she promised him that after her 
death she would beg of God a reward 
for his kind service. Three days after 
her martyrdom she appeared before him, 
placing a crown upon his head and in- 
forming him that the Almighty heard 
her prayer on his behalf. Whereupon^ 
finding himself suddenly converted, he 
asked for instruction, embraced the faith, 
and shortly afterwards obtained the crown 
of martyrdom. 

The great St. Cyprian, Bishop of Car- 
thage, made an agreement with Pope 
Cornelius that whoever of them should 



122 The Intercession of Saints. 

die first would intercede for the other 
and help him by his prayers. In his 
work De Virginibus he beseeches the 
holy virgins, that when they reach the 
next life and obtain their reward, not 
to be unmindful of him in their pray- 
ers. 

St. Gregory Nazianzen relates of St. 
Justina, who was a virgin and martyr 
in the third century, that, in order to 
overcome a terrible temptation arising 
from some diabolical influence brought 
to bear against her virtue by a young 
pagan enamored of her beauty, she had 
recourse to the Virgin Mary, and by 
prayer and fasting was thereby delivered 
through her intercession from the well- 
nigh fatal snare. 

St. Basil, the most exact of all the 
Greek theologians of the early ages, in 



The Intercession of Saints. 123 

his profession of faith addressed to the 
Emperor Julian the Apostate, says : 

" I acknowledge the holy apostles, pro- 
phets,- and martyrs, and I invoke them 
in order that they may pray for me to 
God, and by their intercession obtain 
his mercy for me." In his homily on 
the forty martyrs he thus speaks : " He 
who is weighed down with anguish flies 
to them, he who is in joy also has re- 
course to them ; the former that he may 
be freed from his sorrow, and the lat- 
ter that he may be all the more es- 
tablished in his prosperity. Here may 
be found the mother praying for her 
children and the wife begging for the 
safe return and good health of her hus- 
band." 

What was deemed not only innocent 
but even salutary by the fervent Chris- 



124 The Intercession of Saints. 

tians of the second, third, and fourth 
centuries cannot with reason be con- 
demned in the nineteenth. The great 
saints and doctors whom I quote did 
not introduce these pious customs, but 
found them already existing in the 
Church. " Be mindful," says St. Basil 
in his thirty-sixth homily, ''of the holy 
martyr Memmas, whom many of you 
now present have found a helper in your 
needs, bringing you success in serious 
difficulties, ensuring a safe return, re- 
storation to health, or even the raising 
to life of some of your children already 
dead — " Filios jam mortuos ad vitam re- 
ductos reddidit." 

St. Gregory of Nysse appeals to the 
martyr St. Theodore: "It is to your in- 
tercession that we owe our present tran- 
quillity ; be our protection likewise in 



The Intercession of Saints. 125 

the future. If more powerful advocacy 
be necessary for us, call on all your 
brother martyrs, solicit Peter, persuade 
Paul, prevail on John, the Beloved Dis- 
ciple, not to forget the churches which 
they established with so much labor and 
suffering-. " 

St. Cyril of Jerusalem (who died a.d. 
386) speaks of the custom that pre- 
vailed in the East : " When we offer 
the Holy Sacrifice we make remembrance 
of those who have gone before us — first 
the patriarchs, then the apostles and the 
martyrs — in order that God, moved by 
their prayers, would hear ours more fa- 
vorably." 

" Obsecrandi sunt angeli, obsecrandi 
sunt martyres " — " We should beseech the 
angels, we should beseech the martyrs," 
says the eloquent St. Ambrose. 



126 The Intercession of Saints. 

The learned St. Jerome wrote an en- 
tire work against Vigilantius, who op- 
posed the doctrine of invocation of saints. 

St. John Chrysostom declares that not 
only in Rome, but also in his own capi- 
tal at the East, kings and emperors con- 
sidered it an honor to be buried in the 
very vestibules of those churches where 
reposed the bones of the martyrs and 
apostles, so satisfied were they to be- 
come, as it were, "the very doorkeepers 
of the fishermen " — " Fiantque piscato- 
rum ostiarii reges." 

A very ample testimony as to this im- 
portant doctrine, given by the great St. 
Augustine, may be found in the eighth 
chapter of the twenty-second book of his 
most celebrated work, The City of God. 
As it would be too long to quote, I shall 
merely give here an extract from his 



The Intercession of Saints. 1 2 7 

writings on the Gospel of St. John (86th 
tract.) : " At the Lord's Table we do not 
make mention of the martyrs, as we do 
of others who rest in peace, to pray for 
them, but rather that they should pray 
for us" — " Sed magis ut orent pro nobis." 
In this short quotation we find mention 
of two important doctrines — namely, the 
invocation of saints, and prayers for the 
dead. 

Prudentius, the great Latin poet of the 
Christian era, wrote a beautiful poem on 
the vast concourse of people that 'were 
accustomed to visit the tomb of St. Hip- 
polyte; the rich and the poor, the patri- 
cians as well as the peasants, blocking 
up the very roads in their anxiety to 
venerate the martyrs remains, and in 
search of health for soul and body 
through his intercession : 



128 The Intercession of Saints. 

" Hie corruptelis animique et corporis seger, 
Oravi quoties stratus, opem ferui." 

In every age the greatest reverence 
was paid to the 

RELICS OF THE SAINTS, 

more particularly to those of the mar- 
tyrs. Their bones, the ashes of their 
bones, or their blood carefully preserved 
in vials or sponges, were all treasured 
up by the early Christians, and esteemed 
beyond all price. 

We see innumerable instances of this 
in the writings of the Fathers, and I 
have already quoted the account given 
by the Father of Ecclesiastical History 
of the special homage paid to the re- 
mains of the blessed martyr Polycarp, 
who was a disciple of St. John the 
Evangelist. 



The Intercession of Saints. 1 2 9 

St. John Chrysostom relates, in a let- 
ter to his sister Marcellina, the great re- 
spect and reverence paid to the relics of 
the holy martyr St. Ignatius (who was 
bishop of Antioch about one hundred 
years after our Saviours time) when his 
remains were brought back, in glorious 
triumph, from Rome, and honored with 
the highest marks of veneration as they 
were carried through the various cities 
en route to their destined resting-place. 

The Sacred Scriptures teach us what 
reverence is due to the relics of the 
holy ones of God ; for do we not read 
in the 4th Book* of Kings (ch. xiii. 21) 
how a dead man was raised, suddenly 
and unexpectedly to life when his body 
was cast into a grave where reposed the 
remains of the great prophet? "And 

* 2d Book of Kings according to the Protestant version. 



130 The Intercession of Saints. 

some that were burying a man, saw the 
rovers, and cast the body into the se- 
pulchre of Eliseus. And when it had 
touched the bones of Eliseus, the man 
came to life, and stood upon his feet." 
How powerful are the relics of a great 
saint ! 

The same is proved from the Acts of 
the Apostles xix. n ? 12: " And God 
wrought special miracles by the hand of 
Paul. So that even there were brought 
from his body to the sick handkerchiefs 
and aprons, and the diseases departed 
from them, and the wicked spirits went 
out of them." Nothing can be clearer; 
and if we did not find this testimony in 
Holy Writ it would be looked upon, by 
those outside the Church, as the most 
degraded kind of superstition to believe 
that miracles could ever be wrought by 



The Intercession of Saints. 131 

the " handkerchiefs " and " aprons " of St. 
Paul, or of any other saint in the calen- 
dar. A number of people were healed 
of their infirmities, and unclean spirits 
were expelled by the very " shadow " of 
Peter, the Prince of the Apostles (Acts 
v. 15, 16). 

As it is closely connected with the 
subject of relics, a few words on 

IMAGES 

may not be out of place. They were 
not absolutely forbidden in the Old Law, 
for God Himself gave orders for some to 
be made — for instance, the figures of the 
Cherubim that were to be placed on 
each side of the Mercy-Seat in the 
Sanctuary (Exodus xxxvii.), and by di- 
vine ordinance also in the Temple, of So- 
lomon (1 Paral. xxviii.) 



132 The Intercession of Saints. 

What was forbidden was to make any 
graven thing so as to make an idol of 
it, or to worship it. 

The Catholic Church teaches, and 
commands pastors to teach, that there 
is no inherent virtue in statues or ima- 
ges by which they can hear or help us, 
and that we are not to expect any aid from 
them — all of which would be gross idolatry. 

Any respect or reverence we pay to 
them is only a relative honor, and is 
referred to their prototypes, or the be- 
ings represented by them. We venerate 
the cross, but whatever homage we pay 
it is intended for the person of Jesus 
Christ Himself. When we bow before 
a statue it is not to the lifeless statue 
we offer any reverence, but to the liv- 
ing Saint in heaven whom it was meant 
to represent. 



The Intercession of Saints. 133 

How sovereignly reasonable, then, is 
devotion to the Saints ! how strongly 
supported by Holy Scripture and by the 
testimonies of the brightest and best 
Christians of all ages since the time of 
Christ ! 

How eminently consoling and encour- 
aging is such a belief ! What a hap- 
py feeling it engenders in our hearts to 
think and to know that, no matter how 
poor, how miserable, or how forsaken we 
may be in this life, how sorely tempted 
or oppressed with fear and sadness, that 
there are 

BLESSED SPIRITS 

hovering near us, that they take the 
deepest interest in our well-being, that 
they are ever ready to help and assist us 



134 The Intercession of Saints. 

by their prayers and intercession, and 
to lead us in the paths of truth and 
righteousness ! 

How instructive, also, when we propose 
them to ourselves as models for imitation ! 
— knowing full well that there was no 
station in life, from the humblest to the 
most exalted, which they did not adorn 
with the highest Christian virtues ; that 
they had the same, and even greater, 
difficulties than we to overcome ; they 
had the same trials and temptations to 
undergo, the same passions to subdue, 
and the same real yet invisible enemies 
to war against — the powers of darkness 
in the high places. 

" That which we have seen and heard 
we declare unto you, that you may have 
fellowship with us, and our fellowship 
may be with the Father, and with His 



The Intercession of Saints. 1 3 5 

Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John i. 3). This is 
the fellowship or 

SWEET COMMUNION 

of which I speak, and in which we all 
believe. " Giving thanks," says St. Paul, 
" to God the Father, who hath made us 
worthy to be partakers of the lot of 
the saints in light" (Colossians i. 12). 

St. Augustine says that " the honor 
rendered to heroes is the best encourage- 
ment to heroism "; so I may say with 
equal truth that the honor rendered to 
Saints is the best encouragement to 
sanctity. 

Whether we live in a kingdom or a 
republic, we cherish the memories of the 
great men who flourished before our 
time, especially those who were of lasting 
service to their country, who successfully 



136 The Intercession of Saints, 

fought its battles, who did honor to its 
name, who spread its reputation abroad, 
who conferred benefits on society by 
their great learning, their useful inven- 
tions, their warlike genius, their states- 
manlike qualities, or by their notable 
benefactions to the whole community. 

We hold their memories in veneration, 
we erect statues in their honor, and we 
cherish with peculiar pride and affection 
whatever relics they have left behind, in 
order to remind a grateful posterity of 
their noble lives. 

What American worthy of the name 
can recall the memory of Washington 
without feelings of affection, and even 
reverence ? And how dearly he would 
prize even the slightest memento of the 
Father of his Country ! What fond 
mother but presses to her heart the 



The Intercessioit of Saints. 137 

portrait of a long-lost, beloved son — pre- 
serving, with the deep reverence of 
motherly affection, the smallest token of 
that life that has gone out from her ; 
of that light which is extinguished ; of 
that flower which has withered away in 
its fair young morn of existence? 

These are the feelings and instincts of 
the human heart, and we do but trans- 
fer them to that life still dearer to us — 
still more real as it is also more spirit- 
ual — the life of the soul and everything 
that tends to render more vivid the great 
truths of the supernatural order. 

Not only the unlettered, the poor and 
the ignorant, need these helps to devo- 
tion, which supply the place of books 
and sermons ; but let a man be never 
so intellectual or well instructed, and, if 
he be possessed of any Christian faith 



138 The Intercession of Saints. 

or feeling, the vivid representation, on 
wood or on canvas, of his crucified 
Redeemer will often have more effect 
in moving his heart and soul than the 
most polished writing or studied dis- 
course. 

Our holy Church is a most tender 
and affectionate Mother. She knows all 
the wants of our nature, and most ef- 
fectively does she supply them, raising 
our souls to God, attracting them from 
the things of earth to bid us fix our 
gaze on something higher, something 
holier, something far more worthy of our 
sighs and labors — the Heavenly Jerusa- 
lem, towards which we should always 
tend, knowing that "here we have no 
lasting city, but we geek one for to come." 



IV. 

DEVOTION TO MARY. 




DEVOTION TO MARY BEGAN AT THE FOOT OF 
THE CROSS ON CALVARY. 

|HE grand work for which the 
Divine Word, the Second Per- 
son of the Adorable Trinity, 
came down from heaven and became in- 
carnate, was now near its full and com- 
plete accomplishment. But a few moments 
yet remained before His visible presence 
should be withdrawn from the earth, be- 
fore the Sun of eternal justice should 
set, and set with a most bloody setting. 
The terrible drama of Calvary was 
drawing to a close. The material sun 

of our world was preparing to hide it- 

139 



140 Devotion to Mary. 

self at the approach of the most awe- 
inspiring* event that ever happened in the 
universe, at which all nature felt the ter- 
rible shock. The reckless, cruel, sight- 
seeing multitude were on their way back 
to the city of Jerusalem, satiated, as they 
were, with the scene of blood they had 
that day witnessed. A small band of sol- 
diers remained on guard, whilst the faith- 
ful few lingered on Calvary's mount. 

The Sacrifice was well nigh complete. 
The Saviour was nailed to the Cross, 
and was hanging in dreadful agony. 
His treasure of Sacred Blood was fast 
oozing away, and His cup of bitterness 
and desolation was being rapidly drained. 
He had offered up His life for the sal- 
vation of men, and in a few moments 
more all would be consummated. 

Our Lord had one more legacy to be- 



Devotion to Mary. j 4 1 

queath — a legacy most precious, a lega- 
cy most dear to His Divine Heart, of 
which the world was not worthy; but 
His charity knew no limits. But one 
member of the apostolic band was pre- 
sent at the Crucifixion, and he was the 
Beloved Disciple — the virginal apostle, 
John the Evangelist To him, then, as 
the representative of all the faithful, Our 
Saviour left the most precious legacy He 
had then to bestow — His own dear 

VIRGIN MOTHER, 

the Mother of Sorrows — Mater Dolorosa 
— standing there, in mute agony, at the 
foot of the Cross: " Son, behold thy 
Mother; Mother, behold thy son." 

By the death of Jesus on the Cross we 
became His brethren, adopted children of 
His Heavenly Father, and co-heirs with 



142 Devotion to Mary. 

Him of the eternal kingdom. Giving us 
God for our Father, He made His Mo- 
ther our Mother also, wishing us to be 
like unto Himself in all things, so far 
as it is possible for creatures so to be. 

All devotion to Mary, all the teaching 
of the Catholic Church with regard to 
her dignity, her prerogatives, her power 
— all springs from the incarnation of Our 
Lord, the sacred pivot on which all his- 
tory, whether sacred or profane, must 
turn ; all events — the rise and fall of 
kingdoms, the spread of literature, the 
progress of science, the advancement of 
civilization — all revolving around that one 
grand central point of the moral uni- 
verse. 

To understand the Incarnation as it is, 
as the Catholic Church understands it 
and wishes it be understood, is to have 



Devotion to Mary. 143 

the key to the whole edifice of Christian 
dogmas. When we have a clear and 
exact idea of it, all doctrines having any 
reference to the Blessed Virgin, the in- 
conceivable dignity to which she was 
raised, the astonishing height of virtue 
and sanctity which she attained, and 
her wonderful power of intercession, 
which are but its natural consequences 
— all become perfectly clear and in- 
telligible. 

In this mystery of the Incarnation we 
believe that the Second Person of the 
ever-adorable Trinity, the perfect image 
of God the Fathers infinite beauty and 
sovereign excellence, and the infinitely 
perfect expression of His uncreated wis- 
dom and intelligence, in the fulness of 
time descended to this earth in order 
to assume our human nature, to become 



144 Devotion to Mary. 

man, to take unto Himself a human soul 
and a human body. 

He descended, in order that we might 
ascend. He condescended to our infirm- 
ity, in order that we might rise to His 
higher life and happiness. The end 
which God had in view, in the Incar- 
nation of the Word, was the deification 
of the creature — that man might be ele- 
vated to a supernatural order of exis- 
tence and participate in His own di- 
vine life and beatitude. 

The great instrument, chosen by God 
from all eternity to carry out His most 
holy design, was the Virgin Mary. What 
a destiny ! A creature to bring forth a 
Creator, a servant her Lord, the redeem- 
ed one her Redeemer ! How favored 
and peculiarly blessed beyond the count- 
less millions of maidens that ever in- 



Devotion to Mary. 145 

habited or ever should dwell upon the 
earth ! How pure, how holy, how per- 
fect must she have been ! The Almighty 
must have showered His most special 
graces and favors upon her, in order to 
make her a worthy recipient of such an 
honor. 

No other created being was ever so 
holy, ever so perfect. Always free from 
every fault and imperfection, not the 
slightest shadow of sin ever flitted over 
her soul. Purest, loveliest of virgins, 
humblest of maidens, given to retirement, 
rapt in contemplation, constantly engaged 
in prayer, object of delight to the 
whole heavenly court, she remains for 
evermore the most privileged, most bless- 
ed, most glorified of God's creatures. 
She was perfect in every virtue, un- 
rivalled in purity, incomparable in inno- 



146 Devotion to Mary. 

cence. Such was the one destined in 
the eternal counsels to be the Mother of 
the God- Man. 

What dignity in the universe, outside 
the Godhead, can compare with Mary s ? 
Conceive all that is grand and sublime 
in creation ; let fancy take its flight on 
angelic wings beyond the confines of the 
earth ; let man be gifted with the deep- 
est and most luminous intelligence of the 
brightest of the Seraphim, and he could 
not possibly imagine anything greater or 
more sublime than to be the Mother of 
Jesus ! 

It would be impossible, absolutely im- 
possible ! The Almighty could not bestow 
on any created being any dignity to sur- 
pass it, for no one can attain to any- 
thing higher than to be the Mother of 
the Incarnate God. 



Devotion to Mary. 147 

No one ever reached before, no one 
ever shall reach again, the dignity with 
which Mary has been blessed — a position 
and dignity that shall remain for ever. 
As Jesus was born and Jesus died, never 
to be born, never to die again, so no 
other created being shall ever have the 
same claim on Him as to be called 
His Mother. She alone rejoices in that 
most beautiful of titles, that grandest of 
dignities — 

THE MOTHER OF JESUS. 

This it is that elevates her above the 
whole world, above the entire universe — 
next to God Himself — far above the pa- 
triarchs and prophets, the virgins and 
confessors, the martyrs and apostles, and 
even far above the Angels and Archan- 
gels, the Powers and Dominations, the 



148 Devotion to Mary, 

Cherubim and Seraphim, as the Queen- 
Mother of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

The chief cause, then, of all her glory, 
the source of all her sanctity, the origin 
of all her power, is the divine maternity. 
" That man cannot be right at heart," 
says Dr. Nevin, a Protestant divine, " in 
regard to the faith of the Incarnation, 
whose tongue falters in pronouncing Mary 
the "Mother of God." 

We call her, and justly, the ° Mother 
of God"; and here is how we reason, 
according to the clear, syllogistic form, 
than which nothing can be more forci- 
ble : 

Jesus Christ is God ; but Mary is the 
Mother of Jesus Christ; therefore Mary 
is the Mother of God. 

The premises are perfectly plain, in- 
telligible, and undeniable to any one who 



Devotion to Mary. 149 

believes in the divinity of Christ ; that 
the conclusion naturally follows no logi- 
cian can deny. 

We do not say that Mary was the 
Mother of the divinity in Christ, no 
more than we say that such a wo- 
man was the mother of such a child's 
soul. Man is composed of body and 
soul, both of which are necessary to the 
formation of him as a man. We all 
know, when we speak of a woman be- 
ing the mother of such a one, that she 
did not create his soul, which God alone 
could do ; yet we say with perfect truth 
she is the mother of such a person. The 
body and soul do not form two distinct 
personalities, but one simply. So, also, 
there are two distinct natures in Jesus 
Christ, the divine and the human, but 
there is only one personality. If there 



150 Devotion to Mary. 

were two persons in Christ (which would 
be heresy to admit), then we should 
say that Mary is the mother of the 
human and not of the divine person. 
But this is absolutely untrue, for the 
Divine Word, in assuming a human 
body and a human soul — in other 
words, becoming man and a perfect 
man — retained His own personality and 
did not assume another. He whom we 
call Jesus Christ is really and truly God 
as well as man — not two persons, but 
one person with two natures hypostati- 
cally joined. Hence, Mary being the 
Mother of Jesus, and Jesus being God, 
Mary becomes ipso facto Mother of God. 
This is her title by just right, and it is 
consequently no sign of idolatry to give 
her this appellation. Nestorius, who de- 
nied it to her, was solemnly condemned 



Devotion to Mary. 151 

by the Fathers of the Church in solemn 
council assembled at Ephesus a.d. 431. 

When the Divine Word left His hea- 
venly throne — the bosom of the Eternal 
Father — to take flesh in the womb of 
Mary and to become man, He did not 
assume our nature merely for a time, say 
thirty-three years, and then cast it off for 
ever. No ; having assumed it once, and 
having really become perfect man as he 
was already true God, for ever after- 
wards, and during the never-eroding ages 
of eternity, human nature remains as 
truly His nature as the divine. He has 
made it his own, and He will preserve it 
as such — immortal, glorious, and impassi- 
ble — at the right hand of the Eternal 
Father, where He, the God-Man ; shall 
never cease to be the source of endless 
delight to the whole court of heaven. 



152 Devotion to Mary. 

His Sacred Humanity, all of which He 
received from the pure, untainted blood 
of the blessed Virgin Mary, and in 
which He suffered unto death — a death 
most cruel for the sins of men — that 
Sacred Humanity shall shine with a splen- 
dor and* a glory that would cast millions 
of suns far more brilliant than ours in- 
to an ignominious shade, and His Sacred 
Wounds shall send out for ever a light 
which countless firmaments could not 
possibly equal. 

Too many are apt to forget the sub- 
lime part of 

MARY IN THE REDEMPTION. 

and the honor and glory which of right 
belong to her in consequence. Let such 
persons take the Bible, and ponder over 
its sacred words in relation to the mys- 



Devotion to Mary. i 5 3 

tery of the Incarnation — that great mys- 
tery hidden in the bosom of God from 
all eternity, revealed to the patriarchs, 
announced hundreds of years in advance 
by the prophets, the object of the desires, 
prayers, and sighs of countless millions 
from the fall of Adam. 

To whom was it announced, and by 
whom was it to be accomplished? Not 
to any of the great ones of the earth, its 
lords or princes, its literati, scientists, or 
philosophers, but to a poor and humble 
Virgin of Nazareth. "The weak ones of 
this world doth God choose that He 
might confound the strong." 

Wonderful to relate, the Almighty con- 
descends so much as to ask the consent 
of this humble and unknown maiden. 
Yes, in the wonderful order of Divine 
Providence, the consent of Mary was ne- 



154 Devotion to Mary. 

• 

cessary for the accomplishment of the 
great mystery of the Incarnation (St. 
Luke i. 27-35). The Almighty com- 
missions one of His highest messengers 
—the Archangel Gabriel — to announce 
this wonderful mystery to Mary, and to 
inform her that she is the instrument 
chosen by God for its accomplishment. 

The angel salutes her with the deepest 
reverence: " Hail, full of grace! the 
Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou 
among women." She, in her great hu- 
mility and spotless virginity, was troubled 
at his saying; but he still further as- 
sured her: " Fear not, Mary: for thou 
hast found grace with God. Behold, 
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and 
shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt 
call his name Jesus." 

Not yet was she fully assured; for, 



Devotion to Mary. 155 

from her most tender years, she had 
vowed her virginity to God, and this 
priceless treasure not even for the most 
exalted of dignities was she willing to 
lose or renounce. " How shall this be 
done, since I know not man ? " Most 
wonderful of miracles, in the omnipotence 
of God she was to preserve her vir- 
ginity and yet become a mother, as was 
foretold, eight centuries before, by the 
prophet Isaias : " Behold, a virgin shall 
conceive and bring forth a Son, and they 
shall call his name Emmanuel, which, 
being interpreted, is, God with us." 

"The Holy Ghost," says the Arch- 
angel announcing the coming miracle 
to her, " shall come upon thee, and the 
power of the Most High shall over- 
shadow thee, and therefore also the Ho- 
ly One that shall be born of thee shall 



156 Devotion to Mary. 

be called the Son of God." Then it was 
that Mary gave her consent to the Incar- 
nation of the Divine Word in her womb, 
and the consequent redemption of the 
human race: " Behold the handmaid of 
the Lord: may it be done to me accord- 
ing to thy word" — Ecce ancilla Domini: 
fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. 

Shortly after Mary visited her cousin, 
St. Elizabeth, and at the very sound of 
Mary's voice John the Baptist leaped for 
joy in his mother's womb: "And Eliza- 
beth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and 
said: ' Blessed art thou among women, 
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb ' 
(exactly as Catholics have been repeat- 
ing ever since, and. since the Holy 
Ghost inspired it, they certainly cannot 
and should not be condemned for follow- 
ing His inspiration). Elizabeth then con- 



Devotion to Mary. 1 5 7 

tinues: "And whence is this to me, that 
the mother of my Lord should come to 
me ? " (The same words are to be found 
in the Protestant as well as the Catholic 
version of the Scriptures.) 

Why, then, object to us for styling 
Mary, as St. Elizabeth did whilst acting 
under an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
"the Mother of my Lord"? Wherein lies 
the difference, "the Mother of the Lord" 
or " the Mother of God " ? 

If Mary be Mother of the Lord, she is 
the Mother of God. If Jesus Christ is 
God, Mary, then, is Mother of God; 

The late Rev. Dr. Wm. Faber, one of 
the loveliest characters that ever lived, 
had a great devotion to Mary, and 
wrote the following poem in her honor 
while he was a member of the Episco- 
pal Church of England : 



1 58 Devotion to Mary. 

MARY. 

" But scornful men have boldly said 

Thy love was leading me from God ; 
And yet in this I did but tread 
The very path my Saviour trod. 

" They know but little of thy worth 

Who speak these heartless words to me ; 
For what did Jesus love on earth 
One-half so tenderly as thee? 

" Get me the grace to love thee more ; 
Jesus will give, if thou wilt plead ; 
And, Mother, when life's cares are o'er, 
Oh ! I shall love thee then indeed. 

" Jesus, when his three hours were run, 
Bequeathed thee from the Cross to me ; 
And, oh ! how can I love thy Son, 
Sweet Mother, if I love not thee?" 

Well indeed might Mary exclaim, after 
hearing the inspired words of St. Eliza- 
beth : " Behold, from henceforth all gene- 
rations shall call me blessed." Genera- 
tion after generation have since appeared 
upon the earth, millions upon millions 



Devotion to Mary. 159 

* 

of mortals — differing in race, education, 
manners, and dispositions — and they have 
vied in honoring her name and extol- 
ling her virtues. 

Wherever Jesus was adored in spirit 
and in truth, there likewise was rever- 
enced His Holy Mother. The Fathers 
and Doctors of the Church in every age 
have published her praises and the 
power of her intercession. Kingdoms 
and provinces were placed under her pro- 
tection, and countless millions felt the 
salutary influence of her life and exam- 
ple. Well indeed might she give utter- 
ance to that prophetic declaration: "From 
henceforth all generations shall call me 
blessed"; for blessed, in truth, she is, by 
reason of her exalted sanctity, her sub- 
lime prerogatives, and her great glory in 
the Church of God. 



160 Devotion to Mary. 

The Almighty, destining Mary to be 
the Mother of the Incarnate Word, des- 
tined her likewise for the possession of 
all those graces and virtues, and that 
eminent sanctity, so necessary to support 
with becoming fitness this most exalted 
of dignities. Hence we believe that no 
human mind, not even an angelic intel- 
ligence, can conceive an adequate idea 
of the unsurpassable height of holiness 
which she has reached. 

It is only natural to suppose that a 
loving son would do all in his power to 
show his affection for the mother that 
bore him. Consider, then, such a Son 
and such a Mother ! Having it in His 
power — a power to which there is no 
limit — He must have absolutely lavished 
His gifts and graces on Mary. 



Devotion to Mary. 1 6 1 

The first of these gifts and graces, in 
the order of time, was her 



IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 

whereby she was preserved, by the pre- 
venting grace of the Redeemer, in the 
very first instant of her existence in her 
mothers womb, from the stain of original 
sin. Had it never been proclaimed by 
the infallible Church, I, for one, cannot 
see the slightest shadow of a difficulty in 
believing such a dogma, but, on the con- 
trary, far more difficulty in the other hy- 
pothesis. For it would seem a disgrace 
to our Blessed Saviour, and the host of 
hell might taunt Him with it for all eter- 
nity, if ever, even for one instant, Mary, 
His Mother, had been in the power of 
Satan — and such undoubtedly would have 



1 62 Devotion to Mary. 

been the case had she been stained with 
the taint of original sin. 

Hence the honor of the Incarnate God 
demanded her exemption, and His Own 
infinite merits purchased it for her. 
Mary, of herself, could not possibly merit 
such a favor, such a privilege. It was 
accorded to her only in view of Christ's 
merits. She owes her redemption to 
Him, as well as do other Christians, but 
there is this difference : in her case 
it was a preventing grace — that is, a 
grace going before, according to the 
original meaning of the word pre- 
vent ; in our case it is subsequent. It 
would have been altogether unbecom- 
ing in her, whom the Divine Word 
chose for His Mother, to have been thus 
stained. 

Impressed with a like idea, the charm- 



Devotion to Mary. 163 

ing poet Wordsworth, though not of the 
Catholic Faith, thus expresses it : 

" Mother ! whose virgin bosom was uncrossed 
With the least shade of thought to sin allied ; 
Woman ! above all women glorified, 
Our tauitcd nature's solitary boast ; 
Purer than foam on central ocean tost, 
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn 
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon 
Bafore her wane begins on heav'n's blue coast, 
Thy image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, 
Not unforgiven, the suppliant knee might bend 
As to a visible power, in which did blend 
All that was mixed and reconciled in thee 
Of Mother's love with maiden purity, 
Of high with low, celestial with serene." 

Whatever honors were conferred upon 
her, whatever privileges and graces — and 
they were exceedingly great — were all 
granted on account of her Divine Son, 
to make her, in so much as any created 
being could be made, a worthy Mother 
of such a Son. 

Is it surprising, then, that we should 



164 Devotion to Mary. 

venerate her whom the Eternal Father 
has so exalted as to choose her for His 
adopted daughter, whom the Divine Word 
selected for His Mother, whom the Holy 
Spirit made His own spouse? "Thou 
art all fair, my dove, and there is no 
stain in thee" (Canticle of Canticles). 

All the homage we render to her 
redounds to the greater glory of God, 
and more especially to the glory of that 
Sacred Humanity of Our Lord Jesus 
Christ which He took whole and entire 
from her pure, spotless, untainted flesh 
and blood. 

To invoke her 

INTERCESSION 

is, therefore, not displeasing to God, is no 
derogation from the divine worship due 



Devotion to Mary. 165 

to Him, nor, in any way, prejudicial to 
His Divine Mediatorship. 

We believe that Christ is the sole 
Mediator between His Heavenly Father 
and us, our sole Redeemer, our Lord 
and our God. But we believe also, as 
I explained in the foregoing treatise, 
that it is in the order of His Divine 
Providence, that it is His wish, His 
desire, that we should beg the interces- 
sion of His faithful servants, of those 
near and dear to Him on account of 
their long -tried fidelity and approved 
sanctity. We believe, and we oftentimes 
even feel, that the blessed ones of God 
hear us, watch over us and sympathize 
with us, for does not the Gospel teach 
us that " there shall be joy before the 
angels of God over one sinner doing 
penance." Our Blessed Lord, moreover, 



1 66 Devotion to Mary. 

assures us that His saints, His chosen 
ones, shall be like the angels in the king- 
dom of heaven. 

The greater the sanctity the nearer 
to God : the nearer to God the more 
powerful the intercession. As St. Paul 
assures us, there is a glory of the 
sun, and a glory of the moon, and a 
glory of the stars, and " star differeth 
from star in glory." Among all beati- 
fied spirits Mary stands pre-eminent, as 
she is pre-eminent in holiness and pre- 
eminent in dignity. ♦ 

If asking her intercession or that of 
the other saints be a reflection on the 
divine Mediatorship of Christ, with at 
least as much reason is the practice of 
asking the prayers of one another upon 
earth. What earnest, sincere Protestant 
who sends his note of petition to his 



Devotion to Mary, 167 

minister in the pulpit, asking his pray- 
ers and those of the congregation, ever 
thinks that he is thereby offering an insult 
to the Mediatorship of the Saviour? His 
action in such a case is but a natural 
consequence of the principle which we 
advocate. 

Do we not read in the Gospel how 
some of the Gentiles, desirous of an au- 
dience with our Blessed Saviour, did not 
go directly to Him, but laid their pe- 
tition before Philip, because he was one 
of the Apostles ; and Philip addressed 
himself to Andrew, whom he believed to 
be deeper in the confidence of Our Lord ? 
What is this if not intercession ? 

Who, then, can estimate, with any- 
thing like an approximation to the truth, 
the wonderful and well-nigh unbounded 
influence which Mary has with her Divine 



1 68 Devotion to Mary, 

Son ? Did ever son love a mother as 
Jesus Christ, the God-Man, loved His 
spotless Mother? Never; and the bright- 
est angel in the kingdom of heaven 
shall never be able, during all eternity, 
to fathom the intensity of that affection. 
His will and hers formed but one on 
earth ; they form but one now in hea- 
ven. 

Did she ever refuse Him anything 
while He was subject to her upon earth, 
and can He refuse her anything she asks 
of Him now that they are joined together 
in the kingdom of His glory ? 

Mary gave Him every particle of His 
Sacred Flesh and Blood ; she suckled Him 
in infancy, she guarded His infant foot- 
steps, she watched over His youth, she 
fondly gazed on His opening manhood ; 
she saw herself in His features that caused 



Devotion to Mary, 169 

Him to be everywhere recognized as 
her Son ; she was the first to behold 
Him on His entrance into this world, 
the last to linger by His Cross and to 
receive His last sigh. How powerful, 
then, must be her influence over His 
Divine Heart ! 

Search Holy Writ and you will there 
find sufficient proof of the power of her 
intercession. Read attentively the Gos- 
pel of St John with regard to the mar- 
riage feast of Cana in Galilee (John ii. 
1-11). It is easy to perceive that it was 
through her intercession that Our Bless- 
ed Saviour, although declaring that His 
time had not yet come, worked the great 
miracle of changing water into wine. 
This was His very first miracle and pub- 
lic manifestation of His divine power. 

Our adversaries quote some of the 



1 jo Devotion to Mary, 

words contained in this relation as not be- 
ing over-respectful on the part of Christ 
to His Mother, v. g. : "Woman, what is 
that to Me and to thee ? My hour is 
not yet come." 

There is an old axiom which reads, 
" Quod nimis probat, nihil probat" — What 
proves too much, proves nothing. If, 
by the Scriptural words just quoted, you 
prove that Christ was disrespectful to 
His Mother, then surely He was not 
the divine person we believe Him to be; 
for did he not, as God, lay down the 
commandment in the Old Law, " Honor 
thy father and thy mother " ; and do you 
think He would afterwards give us an 
example in direct violation of His own 
command — He who declared that He 
came to fulfil the entire Law, and not to 
disregard it? 



Devotion to Mary. i 7 1 

The tone of voice in which He uttered 
the words in question would change the 
meaning very materially ; and if we go 
back to the original language in which 
they were uttered — the Chaldaic — they 
have a totally different signification : " Man 
bain anta uni ana'' — There is but one 
thought between us. 

Leaving the words, however, as they 
stand, and their meaning is to be judged 
from the context. If Our Blessed Saviour 
thought that His Mother's request was 
presumptuous or ill-timed, He certainly 
would not have granted it. After those 
words of supposed rebuke, what does the 
sacred text tell us? That His Blessed 
Mother undoubtedly knew the issue, is 
evident from what she said to the wait- 
ers : " Whatever He shall say to you, do 
ye." Whereupon He Himself gave or- 



1 7 2 Devotion to Mary. 

ders to the waiters to fill the water-pots 
with water, to draw out and carry them 
to the chief steward, who, on tasting, 
found it to be the best of wine. " This 
beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana 
of Galilee," at the request of His Holy 
Mother and through her special inter- 
cession, although there did not seem to 
exist any necessity for such a display of 
His power, more especially since He 
Himself declared that "His time had 
not yet come." Facts speak louder than 
words. He waived all these reasons in 
favor of Mary, and thus u manifested His 
glory, and His disciples believed in 
Him." This 

FIRST MIRACLE, 

worked in honor of Mary, the Mother of 
God, and through her special intercession, 



Devotion to Mary, 173 

was but the beginning of that series of 
miraculous events which have since trans- 
pired in the world, and have been witness- 
ed and authenticated by trustworthy, com- 
petent witnesses, in every age of the 
Christian era, 

" Her maternal charity," says Bossuet, 
"having contributed so powerfully to our 
salvation, in the mystery of the Incarna- 
tion, which is the principle of all grace, 
she will contribute thereto eternally in 
all the other operations which are its 
dependencies. " 

The greater devotion we have to 
Mary, the more shall we love her Son ; 
the more reverence we pay to her, the 
deeper shall be our adoration of the God- 
Man. One leads to the other infallibly ; 
were it otherwise, then devotion to Mary 
would be condemnable. As the great 



1 74 Devotion to Mary. 

Bossuet — the Eagle of Meaux — declared, 
"Toute notre devotion pour la Sainte 
Vierge est inutile et superstitieuse, si elle 
ne nous conduit a Dieu " — AH our devo- 
tion to the Blessed Virgin is useless and 
superstitious if it conduct us not to God, 
in order that we may possess Him eter- 
nally and enjoy our heavenly inherit- 
ance. 

Or, as St. Francis de Sales, the most 
amiable of men, says: "He who is anx- 
ious to please God and Our Blessed 
Lady does well, very well indeed ; but 
he who would wish to please Our Lady 
as much as or more than God would be 
guilty of an unpardonable disorder." 

All her glory, all her virtue, all her 
wonderful sanctity and well-nigh bound- 
less power, she has received from 
her Divine Son, and by reason of His 



Devotion to Mary. 175 

infinite merits. Nor is He jealous of any 
honor we pay her; as well might it 
be said that the sun is jealous of the 
moon which shines with his reflected 
light. 

The strangest and most unaccountable 
fact that I have ever noticed in religi- 
ous differences is, that good, honest, and 
sincere persons, outside the Catholic 
Church, pay due reverence to the memo- 
ries of the special friends and intimates 
of Our Lord — His disciples and apos- 
tles, to Martha, Mary, Lazarus, and even 
Mary Magdalen; to Sts. Peter, James, and 
John the Beloved Disciple (although I 
must say that they are sometimes chary 
of their praises of St. Peter), and yet, 
mirabile dictuJ they withhold the slight- 
est veneration and, so to speak, even 
the most common civilities from her 



176 Devotion to Mary. 

who was undoubtedly elevated above all 
others, and who was the nearest and 
dearest to Our Divine Lord. 

I have read hundreds of sermons, 
preached by ministers of different deno- 
minations, and yet not in one of every 
hundred have I seen the name of Mary 
mentioned. The very name of Mary, 
the Mother of Jesus, instead of inspir- 
ing the deepest respect and love, seems 
to shock . them, so that it would appear 
that they are in constant dread lest, if 
they were to utter it with the slightest 
mark of respect, they would be imme- 
diately condemned as Papists and Mari- 
olatrists. 

Not of this class is Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, who, although not a Catholic, 
yet beautifully speaks of that name : 



Devotion to Mary. i 7 7 

" Is thy. name Mary, maiden fair? 
Such should, methinks, its music be, 
The sweetest name that mortals bear 
Were best befitting thee ; 
And she to whom it once was given, 
Was half of earth and half of heaven." 

I believe that many are hardly to 
blame for the sad and unfortunate senti- 
ments which they hold, so deeply have 
they been imbued, from their earliest 
childhood, with the most unfounded and 
even ridiculous 

PREJUDICES AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 

and all its doctrines, accusing us of 
idolatry, superstition, and kindred abomi- 
nations, which we detest and abhor as 
much as, and even more than, they do. 

The late Dr. Orestes Brownson, a 
convert to the Faith, and one of the 
deepest and most powerful minds America 



1 78 Devotion to Mary. 

ever produced, thus expresses himself on 
this subject : 

u We can well remember the time when 
our belief in the slanders against Catho- 
lics, forged in the heart of the Reforma- 
tion, and handed down unimpaired to our 
day, was as implicit and religious as it 
was in the denunciations of our Lord 
against the Scribes and Pharisees. We 
had drawn these things from the very 
breasts of our mother. They were min- 
gled with our first ideas ; were articles 
in our infant creed. As we grew up we 
had no more doubt of their truth than 
we had of the events of Redemption. 
And we remember, too, what astonishment 
we felt when a suspicion of their false- 
ness had forced itself upon us ; and how 
when this suspicion expanded into clear 
conviction our faith was shaken in al- 



Devotion to Mary. 1 79 

most everything, how we trembled lest 
upon examination we should find the tra- 
ditions in favor of Christianity itself as 
baseless as we had found those against 
Catholicity ; and it was only through an 
interposition of the great mercy of God 
that we did not fall a victim to the scep- 
ticism thus produced, so firmly had these 
poisonous roots of false tradition en- 
twined themselves with the earliest shoots 
of our belief in essential truth. Our ex- 
perience teaches us a lesson of Christian 
sympathy and forbearance. It furnishes 
to our minds a plain reason, and almost 
an excuse, for that which often appears 
unaccountable, if not criminal, to old 
Catholics. They, having always enjoyed 
the light, cannot comprehend how Pro- 
testants should mistake it for darkness ; 
or mistake the nature of things which it 



180 Devotion to Mary. 

freely reveals. But to us who have seen 
things from the Protestant point of view 
this is by no means wonderful. We can 
well understand how people in the dark 
should commit blunders, how if a man 
walk in the night he stumbleth, ' because 
there is no light in him/ " 

An unbiassed meditation on many pas- 
sages of their own version of the Scrip- 
tures, or a calm and unprejudiced perusal 
of the simplest Catholic Catechism, would 
remove many of their strongest objections. 

There is one thing certain : No one 
can really adore Jesus Christ " in spirit 
and in truth," and not love and reverence 
His Blessed Mother. Any dishonor or 
insult to her must necessarily rebound on 
Him. On leaving the earth, the scene of 
His labors, the most precious legacy, after 
that of His own most Precious Blood, 



Devotion to Mary. 181 

which He bestowed upon the world 
was His own pure, Immaculate Virgin 
Mother, to whom we may fly in time 
of need, whose succor we should ask in 
time of danger, under whose protection 
we should place ourselves and all our 
interests, in order that she might lead 
us, by her powerful intercession, safely 
and surely to the feet of Jesus — " the 
way, the truth, and the life." 

When Columbus, a good and faithful 
Catholic, discovered America he named 
the first island on which he set foot 
San Salvador, in honor of our Redeemer. 
(The English, who came afterwards, 
looking upon this as a mark of super- 
stition, changed the name to " Cat 
Island.") The second island he dis- 
covered he named in honor of the Im- 
maculate Conception of Mary : Santa 



1 82 Devotion to Mary. 

Maria de la Concepcion. The vessel in 
which he sailed for the new world was 
called the "Santa Maria. ,, 

The town of St. Augustine, Florida, 
forty years older than any other in the 
United States, according to Bancroft, was 
founded on the Feast of the Nativity 
of the Blessed Virgin, after the celebra- 
tion of a High Mass in her honor. 

The Chesapeake Bay was first called 
St. Mary's. Father James Marquette, the 
Jesuit, who first explored the Mississippi 
to the mouth of the Arkansas, called it 
the Immaculate Conception a.d. 1673, one 
hundred and eighty-one years, therefore, 
before it was proclaimed as a dogma, 
which shows that it was not a new 
doctrine, but one always believed in the 
Catholic Church. 

Montreal, founded over two hundred 



Devotion to Mary. 1 83 

and forty years ago, was first called Ville- 
Marie — City of Mary. In November, 
1653, Father Chamount erected the first 
Catholic Church in the State of New 
York, and called it St. Marys. 

Thus it is easy to perceive that devo- 
tion to the Blessed Virgin is not new 
even in this country, placed as it is by 
our prelates under the patronage of the 
Immaculate Conception. So we may 
truly say, in the beautiful words of our 
gifted American poet, Longfellow : 

" This is the Blessed Mary's land, 
Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer. 
All hearts are touched and softened at her name ; 
Alike the bandit with the bloody hand, 
The priest, the prince, the scholar, and the peasant ; 
The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer, 
Pay homage to her as one e'er present. 
And e'en as children who have much offended 
A too indulgent father, in great shame, penitent 
And yet not daring unattended 



184 Devotion to Mary. 



To go into his presence, at the gate 
Speak with their sister, and confiding wait 
Till she goes in before and intercedes : 
So men, repenting of their evi4 deeds, 
And yet not venturing rashly to draw near 
With their requests an angry father's ear, 
Offer to her their prayers and their confession, 
And she for them in heaven makes intercession. 
And if our faith had given us nothing more 
Than this example of all womanhood, 
So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good, 
So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure, 
This were enough to prove it higher and truer 
Than all the creeds the world had known before." 

— The Golden Legend. 






• V. 

PURGATORY. 

URGATORY is a state of suf- 
fering for such souls as have 
left this life in the friendship 
of God, but who are not sufficiently 
purified to enter the kingdom of heaven 
— having to undergo some temporal pun- 
ishment for their lighter sins and imper- 
fections, or for thejr grievous sins the 
eternal guilt of which has been remit- 
ted. In other words, we believe that 
the souls of all who depart this life — 
not wicked enough to be condemned to 
hell, nor yet pure enough to enjoy the 
Beatific Vision of God — are sent to a 
place of purgation, where, in the cruci- 



1 86 Purgatory. 

ble of suffering, the lighter stains of their 
souls are thoroughly removed, and they 
themselves are gradually prepared to en- 
ter the Holy of Holies — where nothing 
defiled is permitted to approach. 

Jesus Christ, we doubt not, made satis- 
faction for all by offering Himself a 
willing victim on Calvary's mount to ap- 
pease the offended majesty of the Deity; 
otherwise heaven would remain for ever 
closed against all the children of men 
Though this sacrifice was offered for all, 
yet it does not avail unto their salvation 
unless each individual co-operate with the 
grace and mercy of God, and unite his 
efforts, feeble though they be, with the 
labors and sufferings of Our Blessed 
Saviour. 

The Almighty will not save us in spite 
of ourselves, or without our heartv con- 



Purgatory. 187 

currence. Hence, we must make use of 
the means which He so generously pro- 
vides for the earnest working out of our 
eternal welfare. These means are the 
Sacraments of His Holy Church — insti- 
tuted by Jesus Christ Himself for the 
purpose of conveying grace to our souls. 
As we have already seen, in the trea- 
tise on the Confessional, we may obtain 
pardon of all our sins — committed after 
baptism — in the tribunal of Penance if 
we have true sorrow for our evil deeds 
and a firm purpose of amendment, if we 
humbly confess our transgressions, and 
receive the absolution of the priest, who 
stands in the place of God and is vest- 
ed with His authority. The eternal guilt 
is then washed away, and the eternal 
punishment due to mortal sin is remit- 
ted ; but there generally remains some 



1 88. Purgatory. 

temporal pains to be undergone, either 
in this life or the next. 
Moreover, there are many 



VENIAL FAULTS 

which the majority of persons commit 
(such as anger, vanity, " white lies," etc.), 
and for which they have little or no sor- 
row — sins which do not deprive the soul 
of Gods friendship, and yet are displeas- 
ing to His infinite holiness. For all these 
we must suffer either in this life or the 
next. Divine justice weighs everything 
in a strict balance, and there is no sin 
that we commit but for which we shall 
have to make due reparation. Faults 
which we deem of little or no account 
the Almighty will not pass unnoticed or 
unpunished. Our Blessed Saviour warns 



Purgatory. 1 89 

us that even for "every idle word that 
man shall say he shall render an account 
in the day of judgment. " 

We know full well that no man will be 
sent to hell merely for an "idle word" 
or for any venial fault he may commit ; 
consequently there must be a place where 

such sins are punished. If they be not 
satisfied for here upon earth by suffer- 
ing, affliction, or voluntary penance, there 
must be a place in the other life where 
proper satisfaction is to be made. That 
place cannot be either heaven or hell. 
It cannot be heaven, for no suffering, no 
pain, no torment is to be found there, 
where "God shall wipe away all tears 
from their eyes, where death shall be no 
more, nor mourning nor weeping." It 
cannot be hell, where only the souls of 
those who have died enemies of God are 



190 Purgatory. 

condemned to eternal misery, for " out of 
hell there is no redemption." 
There then must be 

A MIDDLE PLACE 

where lighter faults are cleansed from the 
soul and proper satisfaction is rendered 
for the temporal punishment that still 
remains due. The punishment of every 
one will vary according to his desert. 
Our Blessed Saviour, according to the 
Gospel of St. Luke (chapter xii. 40-48), 
mentions different grades of punishment 
for sinners — those whose portion shall be 
appointed "with unbelievers/' those who 
" shall be beaten with many stripes," and 
others "with few stripes." 

Here is the text in full : 

11 Be ye then also ready, for at what hour 
you think not, the Son of Man will come. 



Purgatory. 1 9 1 

And Peter said to Him : Lord, dost thou 
speak this parable to us or likewise to all ? 
And the Lord said: Who (thinkest thou) 
is the faithful and wise steward, whom his 
lord setteth over his family, to give them 
their measure of wheat in due season? 
Blessed is that servant, whom when his 
lord shall come, he shall find so doing. 
Verily, I say to you, he will set him over 
all that he possesseth. But if that ser- 
vant shall say in his heart : My lord is 
long a-coming, and shall begin to strike 
the men-servants and maid-servants, and 
to eat and drink and be drunk : the lord 
of that servant will come in a day that 
he expecteth not, and at an hour that he 
knoweth not, and shall separate him, and 
shall appoint him his portion with unbe- 
lievers. And that servant who knew the 
will of his lord, and hath not prepared, 



•192 Purgatory. 

and did not according to his will, shall 
be beaten with many stripes. But he 
that knew not, and did things worthy of 
stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." 

Our Divine Lord warns us to make 
necessary reparation whilst we have the 
time and opportunity : 

" Make an agreement with thy adver- 
sary quickly whilst thou art in the way 
with him ; lest, perhaps, the adversary de- 
liver thee to the judge, and the judge 
deliver thee to the officer, and thou be 
cast into prison. Amen I say to thee, 
thou shalt not go out from thence till 
thou pay the last farthing " (St. Matthew 
v. 25, 26). 

This expresses the doctrine of purga- 
tory most admirably. The Scriptures 
always describe our life as a pilgrimage. 
We are only on our way. We have to 



Pur 'gator y. 193 

meet the claims of divine justice here be- 
fore being called to the tribunal of the 
everlasting Judge ; otherwise, even should 
we die in His friendship and yet have left 
these claims not entirely satisfied, we shall 
be cast into the prison of purgatory : 
And "Amen I say unto thee that thou 
shalt not go out from thence until thou 
pay the last farthing. ,, 

Mortal sin destroys the image of God 
in the soul, severs the bond of friendship 
that connects it with the Creator, and to- 
tally effaces every trace of divine beauty 
imprinted on it by the sanctifying grace 
of the Holy Spirit. This sin, moreover, 
renders the soul subject to eternal pun- 
ishment and misery. Venial sin does not 
destroy sanctifying grace, deprives us not 
of the friendship of God, but it displeases 
Him, disfigures the beauty of the soul, 



1 94 Purgatory, 

and leaves upon it stains from which it 
must be purified before enjoying the im- 
mediate presence of God: " There shall 
not enter into it anything defiled " (Apoc. 
xxi. 27). 

When a soul leaves this world with true 
and perfect sorrow for all past sins, whether 
light or grievous, being thus united to God 
by perfect charity, it has no purgatory to un- 
dergo, but is immediately admitted to the 
enjoyment of its eternal reward. Consid- 
ering, however, human nature as it is, we 
have sufficient reason to think that there 
are few so blessed ; yet there are many 
whom we consider good, faithful Christians 
and who are nevertheless stained with light 
sins and imperfections, for which they 
shall have to do penance here or here- 
after. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose 
that there are many such who depart this 



Purgatory. 195 

life without sufficient sorrow or due satis- 
faction being made for these delinquencies. 

Our Saviour declares (St. Matt. xii. 32) 
that " whoever shall speak a word 
against the Son of Man, it shall be for- 
given him ; but he that shall speak 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
forgiven him, either in this life or in the 
world to come " ; which shows, as St. 
Augustine says in the twenty-first book 
of his work, " The City of God," that 
there are some sins (venial, of course) 
which shall be forgiven in the next world 
and that consequently there is a middle 
state or place of purgation in the other 
life, since no one can enter heaven having 
any stain of sin, and surely no one can 
obtain forgiveness in hell. 

The testimony of St. Paul is very clear 
on this point of doctrine : " For no man 



196 Purgatory. 

can lay another foundation, but that 
which is laid ; which is Jesus Christ. 
Now if any man build on that founda- 
tion, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, 
hay, stubble : every mans work shall be 
made manifest; for the day of the Lord 
shall declare it, because it shall be reveal- 
ed by fire ; and the fire shall try every 
mans work, of what sort it is. If any 
mans work abide, which he had built 
thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If 
any mans work burn, he shall suffer loss ; 
but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by 
fire " (quasi per igneni). 

No man can lay any other foundation 
than on true faith in Jesus and all that 
he has taught — a lively, ardent faith ; not 
a dead faith, but a faith working through 
charity, for " faith without good works is 
dead," St. James declares. 



Purgatory. 197 

Having the sure foundation thus laid, 
every true Christian builds his own spi- 
ritual edifice thereon — his salvation and 
sanctification. These spiritual buildings 
vary in size, in strength, and in beauty, 
according to the greater or lesser spiri- 
tual knowledge, zeal, and holiness of the 
builders. Some build with "gold, silver, 
and precious stones " ; these are the great 
Saints of God, who build with the pure 
gold of burning love, the shining silver 
of good, modest example, and the pre- 
cious stones of heroic virtues. Others, 
not quite so elevated and holy in the 
sight of the Almighty, have but little 
silver, less gold, and scarcely any pre- 
cious stones, but with no small quantity 
of wood, hay, and stubble. This is the 
class of ordinary good Christians, who 
strive to serve God, who perform many 



198 Purgatory. 

good actions during the course of their 
life, but who spoil them with wood, hay, 
stubble — that is to say, they perform them 
with negligence or with some vain and 
worldly motives mingled with the good, 
seeking after human applause or refrain- 
ing from some holy deed for fe&r of 
worldly censure. 

"The day of the Lord" — that is, the 
particular judgment after death — will make 
all this manifest, of what sort each man's 
work is; if he have built on a sure 
foundation and died in the friendship of 
God — although there might have been 
some " wood, hay, and stubble " by way 
of venial sins and imperfections — his soul 
will be saved, yet "so as by fire," and 
cleansed from all its dross and stains by 
the purifying fire of purgatory, and thus 
rendered fit for the presence of God. St. 



Purgatory. 199 

Ambrose, commenting on this text, says : 
" Whereas St. Paul saith ■ yet so as by 
fire/ he showeth, indeed, that he shall 
be saved, but yet shall suffer the punish- 
ment of fire; that, being purged by fire, 
he may be saved and not tormented for 
ever." 

The gifted and deeply-learned Origen 
— a Greek Father of the second century — 
thus discourses on the same text : " For 
this cause, therefore, he that is saved is 
saved by fire ; that if he happen to have 
anything of the nature of lead com- 
mingled with him, that the fire may burn 
and melt away, that all men may become 
pure gold, because the gold of the land, 
which the Saints are to preserve, is said 
to be pure ; and ( as the furnace trieth 
gold, so doth temptation try the just* 
(Eccl. xxvii.) All, therefore, must come 



200 Purgatory, 

to the fire — all must come to the furnace. 
But, also, when we shall have come to 
that place, if any one shall have brought 
many good works and some little ini- 
quity, that little is melted away and puri- 
fied in the fire like lead, and all remains 
pure gold. And if any one have carried 
thither more lead, he suffers the fire 
more, that he may be the more refined, 
in order that, although there may be 
some little gold, the residue may still be 
pure. If any one should come thither 
all lead, that will be done to him which 
is written ; ' He shall be swallowed down 
into the deep, like lead into the mighty 
waters ' (Exodus xv.) 

" There are sins which, when we com- 
mit them in ignorance, there is, I believe, 
decreed and prepared for us, by the com- 
mand of God, a place where we must 



Purgatory. 201 

• 
dwell for a certain time. . . . For 

be it that, after the foundation, Christ 
Jesus, in whom thou hast been instruct- 
ed, thou hast built no abiding gold and 
silver and precious stones ; thou mayest 
have gold, either much or l little, even 
silver and precious stones, but also wood, 
hay, and stubble; what wouldst thou wish 
to become of thee after thy departure ? 
Wouldst thou enter the holy places with 
thy wood, and thy hay, and thy stubble, 
thereby to defile the kingdom of God? 
Or, on the other hand, wouldst thou, on 
account of the wood, hay, and stubble, 
remain in the fire and receive nothing 
for the gold, silver, and precious stones ? 
This is not just. The fire will consume 
the wood, the hay, the stubble ; for God 
is a consuming fire." 

In the First Epistle of St. Peter (iii. 



202 Purgatory. 

1 8, 19) we learn that Christ "being put 
to death, indeed, in the flesh, but brought 
to life by the spirit, in which also He 
came and preached to those spirits who 
were in prison." 

Our Blessed Saviour, immediately after 
death, descended into that part of hell 
called Limbo, and, as St. Peter informs 
us, "preached to the spirits who were in 
prison." This most certainly shows the 
existence of a- middle state. The spirits 
to whom our Lord preached were cer- 
tainly not in the hell of the damned, 
where His preaching could not possibly 
bear any fruit; they were not already in 
heaven, where no preaching is necessary, 
since there they see God face to face. 
Therefore they must have been in some 
middle state — call it by whatever name 
you please — where they were anxiously 



Pttrgatory. 203 

awaiting their deliverance at the hands 
of their Lord and Redeemer. 

Belief in purgatory is more ancient 
than Christianity itself. It was the belief 
among the Jews of old, and of this we 
have clear proof in the Second Book of 
Machabees xii. 43. After a great vic- 
tory gained by that valiant chieftain, Ju- 
das Machabeus, about two hundred years 
before the coming of Christ, " Judas mak- 
ing a gathering, he sent twelve thousand 
drachmas of silver to Jerusalem for sac- 
rifice to be offered for the sins of the 
dead, thinking well and justly concerning 
the resurrection. ... It is, therefore, 
a holy and wholesome thought to pray 
for the dead, that they may be loosed 
from their sins." 

It is customary, even in our days, in 
Jewish synagogues, to erect tablets re- 



204 Purgatory. 

minding those present of the lately de- 
ceased, in order that they may remember 
them in their prayers. Surely if there 
did not exist a place of purgation no 
prayers nor sacrifices would be of any 
avail to the departed. We find the cus- 
tom of praying, of offering the Holy Sa- 
crifice of the Mass for their spiritual 
benefit, more especially on their anni- 
versaries, an universal practice among 
the primitive Christians of the Eastern 
and Western Churches, of the Greek, 
Latin, and Oriental rites. 

Even if we did not find strong war- 
rant, as we do, in the Scriptures, the 
authority of 

APOSTOLIC TRADITION 

would be amply sufficient for us ; for, 
remember, we Catholics hold the tradi- 



Purgatory. 205 

tions, handed down from the Apostles, 
to be of as much weight as their own 
writings. 

Our Blessed Saviour did not build His 
Church on the Scriptures, but on the 
preaching of the Apostles. He wrote no- 
thing Himself, nor did He command them 
to write. He did not say to the Apostles : 
Go and write the New Testament, and 
spread copies of it throughout the world ; 
but "Go, teach all nations, instructing 
them to observe all things whatsoever I 
have commanded you ; and, behold, I am 
with you all days, even unto the consum- 
mation of the world." 

The different portions of the New Tes- 
tament were written at different times, 
in different places, by different authors, 
and to suit the exigencies of different oc- 
casions. It was never intended to contain 



206 Purgatory. 

a complete system of the truths of reve- 
lation. It is undoubtedly the 

WORD OF GOD, 

and we revere it as such ; but the Church 
had spread over a considerable part of 
the known world before the last Epistle 
of St. John the Evangelist was written — 
about the close of the first century, a.d. 
99, according to Baronius. The different 
parts of the Bible were not joined to- 
gether in . one volume until the fifth cen- 
tury, when their canonicity was decided 
by a Council held in Rome under Pope 
Gelasius I., a.d. 494. 

We revere the apostolic traditions pre- . 
served in the Church just as much as the 
apostolic writings. But some of our Pro- 
testant friends may say: u We do not 
want any of your traditions ; we adhere 



Purgatory, 207 

to the Bible, and the Bible only, as it is 
the Word of God; and that is sufficient 
for us." 

Well, we answer, How do you know 
that the Bible is the Word of God, that 
you have it pure and unadulterated as it 
left the hands of its inspired writers? 

The oldest Protestant denomination 
only dates back three centuries — namely, 
to the sixteenth. The Bible was not 
written then, nor did it drop down from 
heaven. It must, then, have been from 
the Catholic Church, that you received it 
— that Church in whose possession it was 
carefully preserved for the preceding fif- 
teen centuries. It was copied year after 
year, and century after century, by pious 
and laborious monks, before the art of 
printing was discovered. 

If ' bishops, priests, and monks were so 



208 Purgatory. 

wicked as to invent the dogmas of "con- 
fession," the "intercession of Saints," and 
last, though not least, "purgatory," they 
could easily have corrupted the texts of 
the Bible. 

There were no Protestants for fifteen 
centuries, and, under the circumstances 
supposed, there would have been none to 
protest against the corruption of the 
Word of God. Therefore there is at 
least one tradition (and that a Catholic 
one) you must hold — that the Bible is a 
divinely- inspired work — for you have no 
other possible way of discovering the fact. 
St. Augustine assures us that he would 
not believe in the Gospel, were it not for 
the authority of the Catholic Church. 

Hence it is that we have recourse to 
sacred tradition as well as to Scripture for 
the proof of our teaching. With refe- 



Purgatory. 209 

rence, then, to the doctrine of " purgatory," 
we are guided by the belief that prevailed 
among the primitive Christians. 

That the custom of praying for the 
dead was sanctioned by the Apostles them- 
selves we have the declaration of St. 
John Chrysostom : " It was not in vain 
instituted by the Apostles that in the cele- 
bration of the tremendous mysteries a re- 
membrance should be made of the de- 
parted. They knew that much profit and 
advantage would be thereby derived." 

Tertullian — the most ancient of the 
Latin Fathers, who flourished in the age 
immediately following that of the Apos- 
tles — speaks of the duty of a widow with 
regard to her deceased husband: "Where- 
fore also does she pray for his soul, and 
begs for him, in the interim, refreshment, 
and, in the first resurrection companion- 



210 Purgatory. 

ship, and makes offerings for him on the 
anniversary day of his falling asleep in 
the Lord. For unless she has done these 
things, she has truly repudiated him so 
far as is in her power." All this sup- 
poses a purgatory. 

44 The measure of the pain," says St. 
Gregory Nyssa, "is the quantity of evil 
to be found in each one. . . . Being 
either purified during the present life by 
means of prayer and the pursuit of wis- 
dom, or ? after departure from this life, by 
means of the furnace of the fire of purga- 
tion." 

What more to the point, and at the 
same time what more touching, than the 
last charge of St. Monica to her noble and 
holy son, St. Augustine ? " Lay this body 
anywhere; let not the care of it anyway 
disturb you ; this only I request of you, 



Purgatory. 2 1 1 

that you will remember me at the Altar 
of the Lord, wherever you be." 

In St. Augustine's beautiful prayer for 
his mothers repose we find a strong- tes- 
timony to the doctrine of which we are 
treating: 

" Although she, having been vivified in 
Christ, even when not as yet released 
from the flesh, so lived as that Thy Name 
is praised in her faith and manners, yet 
I dare not say that, from the time Thou 
didst regenerate her by baptism, no word 
has issued from her mouth against Thy 
precept. And it was said by the Truth, 
Thy Son : Whosoever shall say to his bro- 
ther, Thou fool, shall be guilty of hell 
fire. And woe even to the praiseworthy 
life of men, if, laying aside mercy, Thou 
examine it. ... I, therefore, O my 
praise and my life ! having laid aside for 



212 Purgatory. 

a while her good actions, for which I give 
thanks to Thee with joy, do now beseech 
Thee for the sins of my mother; hear 
me through the Medicine of our wounds, 
Who hung upon the Wood, and Who, 
sitting at Thy right hand, maketh inter- 
cession for us. I know that she dealt 
mercifully, and from her heart forgave 
her debtors their debts; do Thou also for- 
give her her debts, if she contracted any 
during so many years after the waters 
of salvation. Forgive, O Lord ! forgive, 
I beseech Thee." 

In order to have a clear understanding of 
the doctrine of purgatory, a true idea of the 
teaching of the Church with regard to 

SATISFACTION 

is very necessary. 

As was remarked before in one of the 
former papers, there is a close connection 



Purgatory. 2 1 3 

between all the truths of the Catholic 
system ; and the principles laid down in 
one series of doctrines are carried to 
their legitimate, logical conclusion in the 
other. Speaking on the subject of con- 
fession, we said that there were three 
essential parts in the Sacrament of Pen- 
ance — namely, contrition, confession, and 
satisfaction. Satisfaction in connection with 
that sacrament means or implies a fulfil- 
ment of whatever salutary penance the 
priest or confessor may impose, and it 
necessarily includes also something still 
more important — namely, that whatever 
injury may have been done to ones 
neighbor in person, property, or char- 
acter must be fully repaired, or, at least, 
to the full extent of the penitents ability. 
There is no forgiveness otherwise. 

Stolen property must be restored to 



214 Purgatory. 

its owner, injured character must be re- 
paired, calumnies should be withdrawn 
even at the cost of the calumniators own 
reputation, all just debts should be paid 
and all damage made good ; otherwise 
the penitent need not expect forgiveness 
either here or hereafter. 

Besides these satisfactions there is a 
general one incumbent on all who have 
sinned, even after having received par- 
don and remission. 

Our Divine Lord offered up an infinite 
satisfaction for all, but, in order that it 
may be applied to our own individual 
souls, we must do our share, must show 
our appreciation of His infinite service 
by offering up our own penances and 
satisfactions. This has always been con- 
sidered necessary by holy men in every 
age of the Christian era. 



Purgatory. 2 1 5 

We believe that all the satisfactions 
of men and of angels for endless ages 
could never satisfy for one mortal sin or 
blot out the punishment due to it. This 
Jesus Christ alone can do ; yet we be- 
lieve at the same time that when, through 
His infinite merits, our sins are par- 
doned and their eternal guilt is washed 
away, there generally remains some 

TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT 

to be undergone in consequence. Adam 
and Eve sinned, and their sin was for- 
given, yet what terrible calamities, by 
way of temporal punishment, fell on them 
and their descendants ! This action of 
God goes to show, in a slight degree, 
how terrible all sin, especially grievous 
sin, is in His sight. 

Moses and Aaron were dearly beloved 



216 Purgatory. 

of God, and yet, in consequence of what 
we might consider a venial sin, a want 
of perfect confidence, they were obliged 
to undergo the punishment of not be- 
holding the promised land: "And the 
Lord said to Moses and Aaron : Because 
you have not believed Me, to sanctify Me 
before the children of Israel, you shall not 
bring these people into the land which I 
will give them." And again : " Where the 
Lord spoke to Moses : Let Aaron, saith 
He, go to his people; for he shall not 
go into the land which I have given the 
children of Israel, because he was incred- 
ulous to my words at the waters of con- 
tradiction " (Numbers xx , Deut. xxxiv.) 

So, in like manner, with regard to holy 
David, a man after God's own heart, who 
had the misfortune of committing two 
great sins; the Almighty sent His pro- 



Purgatory. 2 1 7 

phet Nathan to upbraid him for his 
crimes: "And David said to Nathan: I 
have sinned against the Lord. And Na- 
than said to David : The Lord hath also 
taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die." 
Here we find that David sinned and was 
forgiven, and his pardon was announced 
to him by a prophet of God. His sins 
were remitted ; so, also, was the eternal 
punishment due to them ; yet we know 
that he had to undergo a great temporal 
punishment for those very same offences 
the remission of which he obtained. 
" Nevertheless," says the prophet, " because 
thou hast given occasion to the enemies 
of the Lord to blaspheme for this thing, 
the child that is born to thee shall surely 
die" (2 Kings xii. 14). 

When David committed a sin of vain- 
glory in numbering his people, he re- 



2 1 8 Purgatory. 

pented of it; and, by way of temporal pun- 
ishment, the Lord gave him his choice of 
three evils. David chose pestilence, and 
there died of his people seventy thousand 
men (2 Kings xxiv.) 

The Scriptures inform us that David 
ate ashes like bread, mingled his tears 
with his drink, watered his couch by his 
weeping on account of his past sins, not- 
withstanding the divine assurance which 
he received that they were forgiven : " My 
sin is always before me " — Peccatum me- 
um contra me est semper. 

Thus sincere penitents in every age — 
before the coming of Christ and more es- 
pecially since — have done rigorous pen- 
ance for their past sins, bearing in mind 
the Scriptural injunction : " Be not with- 
out fear for sins forgiven." 

They who have the highest apprecia- 



Purgatory. 219 

tion of the sufferings and infinite merits 
of Jesus Christ are those who always 
make their utmost efforts to unite with 
His their own sufferings, satisfactions, 
works of penance and alms-deeds, in or- 
der that these may be rendered more ac- 
ceptable in the sight of the Almighty, 
and thus avert those temporal afflictions 
He has in store for the sins we have 
committed, even though He has blotted 
out their eternal guilt. They who, in 
consequence of their holy lives, needed 
not such penance for themselves, offered 
it up, in union with the Sacrifice of their 
Saviour, for the benefit of their brethren ; 
thus following the noble example of the 
Apostle Paul : i; I now rejoice in my suffer- 
ings for you, and fill up those things that 
are wanting in the sufferings of Christ, 
for His body, which is the Church" (1 



2 2 o Pu r gator y. 

Colossians i. 24). Certainly there is no- 
thing wanting in the sufferings of Christ 
Himself, as our Head; but His members 
are in need, and if they wish to enjoy 
the glory of their thorn-crowned Chief 
they must suffer with Him: ''Through 
many tribulations we must enter the king- 
dom of heaven." 

No one can be a true follower of Jesus 
Christ unless he follow Him on His way 
to Calvary : " If any man will come after 
Me, let him deny himself, take up his 
cross, and follow Me." It is one of the 
greatest and saddest of mistakes to im- 
agine that, because our Saviour suffered 
for all men even unto the death of the 
Cross, we are thereby freed from the law 
of suffering or the obligation of doing 
penance. He calls us not to a life of 
ease and comfort, because He led a life 



Ptcrgatory. 221 

of pain and ignominy for our sakes. He 
offered for us an infinite ransom, without 
which all the penance we might be able 
to do for ages could not avail, nor could 
it possibly bear any comparison with His 
infinite satisfaction ; and yet we are not 
therefore dispensed from the duty of do- 
ing our own share, and offering it up to 
the Almighty in union with all that Jesus 
has done for up. 

Even if this obligation existed not, we 
would be very ungrateful were we to lead 
a life of ease when He, the sinless One, 
led a life of hardship ; to lead a life of 
pleasure, comfort, and luxury when He 
chose the rough way of the Cross, the 
hard and thorny road that led up to Cal- 
vary's mount, Calvary's torment, and Cal- 
vary's ignominy. 

It has always been the belief of the 



222 Purgatory. 

Church in every age that we all owe, in 
proportion to our sins, their number and 
grievousness, our own portion of satisfac- 
tory labor. This does not in the slightest 
degree detract from our Saviour's merits 
and infinite satisfaction, nor does it imbue 
the penitent with false notions in regard 
to his own self-sufficiency, as the Council 
of Trent expressly declares: "The satis- 
faction which we make for sin is not so 
ours, as if it were not through Jesus 
Christ; for we who can do nothing of our- 
selves, as of ourselves (2 Cor. iii. 5), can 
do all things in Him who strengthens us. 
Man, then, has nothing wherein to glory ; 
but all our glory is in Christ, in whom we 
live, in whom we merit, in whom we make 
satisfaction, bringing forth fruits worthy of 
penance" (Session xiv. chap, viii.) 

The farther we go back in ecclesiasti- 



Purgatory, 223 

cal history and the nearer we approach 
the apostolic age, the more proof we find 
of the existence and practice of this belief 
among the earliest Christians, Besides 
confessing their sins publicly, they were 
obliged to undergo the most rigorous and 
prolonged penances. Sometimes for one 
grievous sin they had to perform public 
penance for three, five, ten,, and twenty 
years, and even for a whole lifetime ; to 
fast on bread and water, to remain out- 
side the church doors, and to be deprived 
of the Sacraments unless in danger of 
death. The great Emperor Theodosius, 
for example, was stopped at the door of 
the Cathedral of Milan by its noble bi- 
shop, St. Ambrose, and was commanded 
to remain outside and do public penance 
for an act of great cruelty to a portion 
of his subjects. 



224 Purgatory. 

So we see how deeply connected is the 
teaching of the Church on the necessity 
of satisfaction with the dogma of purga- 
tory. They who fully satisfy here, who 
receive full and entire pardon of their sins, 
do penance in proportion to their of- 
fences, or suffer with Christian resigna- 
tion, as coming from the hands of God, 
great trials and afflictions in this life, 
escape the punishment of purgatory in 
the next 

I have no difficulty in believing that 
there is a goodly number of faithful Chris- 
tians here below who lead lives of pover- 
ty, ignominy, and contempt, who enjoy 
none of the good things of life, who are 
subject to misery from the cradle to the 
grave, who bear up under every hard- 
ship, trial, and affliction, serving God, at 
the same time, with " clean hands and 



Purgatory. 225 

pure hearts." I doubt not that they pass 
through their purgatory here, and will 
be immediately received after death into 
the loving embrace of their Lord and 
their God. 

It would be unreasonable to suppose 
that others, believing Christians as they 
may be, but leading totally different 
lives, should have the same exemption 
or the same reward. They spend their 
days here in the enjoyment of the good 
things of this world ; they have its com- 
forts and its luxuries ; they make little 
or no sacrifices ; they fulfil their religious 
duties occasionally, or even frequently, but 
with little fervor; they sin, and some- 
times grievously, and yet they deny 
themselves in nothing, but give them- 
selves up to the vanities of life. They 
certainly do not pass through their purga- 



226 Purgatory. 

tory here, and they may rest assured that, 
even if they have the good fortune of 
escaping hell, a long and painful purga- 
tory awaits them in the next life before 
they shall be permitted to enter the 
abode of the blessed. All this stands to 
reason, and it becomes all the more 
clear when we consider another class to 
be found in every community. 

Our Divine Lord declared that "it is 
easier for a camel to enter the eye of 
a needle than for a rich man to enter 
the kingdom of heaven." What is im- 
possible to men is possible with the 
grace of God. All of which shows that 
it is only with great difficulty that such 
men may be saved. Riches are very 
frequently an occasion of sin to their 
possessors, since by them they may 
easily procure for themselves pleasures 



Purgatory. 227 

that are unlawful ; and, moreover, since 
they render them often hard-hearted 
towards the poor. "Woe to you, ye 
rich!" says our Lord, "for you have your 
consolation here." 

Let us consider some persons of this 
class, or of the class who make their 
whole life consist in the mere pursuit 
of sensual pleasures. They may have 
the true faith, and a certain amount of 
reverence for God and the things of 
God. They lead careless, and even sin- 
ful, lives. They indulge in many ex- 
cesses. They constantly postpone their 
conversion from day to day, from youth 
to manhood, from manhood to old age, 
and even in old age itself until their 
death-bed. A real conversion then is 
indeed very rare. Many delude them- 
selves with an imaginary conversion, and 



228 Purgatory. 

only find out their mistake when it is 
too late; that is, when they appear be- 
fore the tribunal of God and are for 
ever condemned. 

However, let us take it for granted 
that God, in His infinite mercy, bestows 
the grace of true conversion on one of 
the class of which we have been treating ; 
that he dies in the grace of that Supreme 
Being to whom he had been an enemy 
the greater part of his life. Dying in 
His friendship, he of course escapes 
eternal damnation ; but could any reason- 
able man say that such a one were fit, 
sufficiently pure to enjoy immediately 
the vision of God face to face — that All- 
holy Being before whom all that' is im- 
pure must fly away, and into whose 
presence nothing defiled can enter? 

Oh ! no. God is a God of justice as 



Purgatory. 229 

well as of mercy. Long, weary years 
shall pass, and even centuries, before 
some souls will be sufficiently purified 
by the fiery bath of purgatory, before 
they will be cleansed from all dross and 
alloy of sin and passion. 

All our satisfactions here are volunta- 
ry, and consequently meritorious; a little 
here suffices for much hereafter, for there 
no one can possibly merit. " Amen, I 
say to thee, thou shalt not go out from 
thence until thou pay the last farthing." 
The doctrines of satisfaction and purga- 
tory are productive of the most benefi- 
cial results. They teach us how to shape 
our lives accordingly. We learn to know 
the value of prayer, almsdeeds, penance, 
and more especially of suffering. Afflic- 
tion is the great crucible for the refin- 
ing, purifying, and spiritualizing of our 



230 Purgatory. 

immortal souls. No matter how or 
whence they proceed, we acknowledge 
all our trials and sorrows as coming 
from the hands of Him who "doth 
all things well"; and if we but bear 
them in the proper spirit, as satisfaction 
for our sins and in union with Christ's 
sufferings, we may rest assured that 
we are shortening the time of our 
purgatorial banishment. We become sat- 
isfied with whatever position in which 
we are placed by God; we bear with 
toil and hardship, the inconveniences 
as well as the miseries of life; and 
even in what appears our very mis- 
fortunes we kiss the hand that strikes 
us and bow down to the will of Him 
who afflicts us. We know full well 
that " God chastises those whom He 
loves," and that it is far better to be 



Purgatory. 231 

chastised here than hereafter ; for here 
His mercy reigns, hereafter His justice. 

Most miserable and truly to be pitied 
is the man who seems happy and pros- 
perous in this life, and who, at the same 
time, lives a stranger to God and His 
grace, adding sin to sin, and treasuring 
up " wrath against the day of wrath." All 
his punishment is before him, and eternal 
misery awaits him. On a sudden the 
wrath of God shall come upon him, and 
darkness shall be his portion for ever 

Truly blessed is he who, after he has 
done grievous wrong in the sight of the 
Almighty, is visited immediately with 
chastisement, and is thus recalled to a 
sense of his duty, bemoans his sinfulness, 
and turns once more to God with greater 
earnestness than before. Then may it be 
said of such, as of Mary Magdalen : 



232 Purgatory. 

" Much hath been forgiven her, because 
she hath loved much." 

If we desire to escape purgatory we 
should spend holy lives here, mortify our 
passions, subdue our appetites, deny our- 
selves in many things, even though per- 
mitted, in order that we might the more 
easily control our inclinations in what is 
unlawful, thus making at the same time 
some satisfaction for our past offences. 

Not only deeply instructive but also 

EMINENTLY CONSOLING 

is the doctrine of purgatory. We need 
not " mourn as those who have no hope," 
for those nearest and dearest who have 
gone hence and departed this life in the 
friendship of God. 

How beautifully our Holy Mother the 
Church bridges over the terrible chasm 



Purgatory. 233 

of the grave ! How faithfully and ten- 
derly she comes to our aid in the saddest 
of our griefs and sorrows ! She leaves 
us not to mourn uncomforted, unsustained. 
She chides us not for shedding tears over 
our dear lost ones — a beloved parent, a 
darling child, a loving brother, affection- 
ate sister, or deeply-cherished friend or 
spouse. She bids us let our tears flow, 
for our Saviour wept at the grave of 
Lazarus. 

She whispers words of comfort — not 
unmeaning words, but words of divine 
hope and strength — to our breaking 
hearts. She pours the oil of heavenly 
consolation into our deepest wounds. She 
bids us cast off all unseemly grief, assur- 
ing us that not even death itself can sever 
the bond that unites us ; that we can be 
of service to those dear departed ones 



234 Purgatory. 

whom we loved better than life itself; 
that we can aid them by our prayers and 
good works, and especially by the Holy 
Sacrifice of the Mass. Thus may we 
abridge their days of banishment, assuage 
their pains, and continue to storm heaven 
itself with our piteous appeals until the 
Lord deign to look down in mercy, 
open their prison-doors, and admit them 
to the full light of His holy presence and 
to the everlasting embrace of their Re- 
deemer and their God. 



VI. 

INFALLIBILITY. 

AN was created in original jus- 
tice, and with the full and per- 
fect use of all his faculties. 
Having fallen from his high estate, his 
intellect became weakened and his will 
disordered. The faculties of reason had 
no longer their legitimate control over 
the faculties of sense. Man, depending 
solely on himself, fell to his lowest state. 
For four thousand years the world, with 
the exception of the Jewish people — the 
depositaries of God's revelation and pro- 
mises — tried the experiment of living 

without God or a true knowledge of the 

235 



236 Infallibility. 

relations existing between the Creator 
and the creature. Slowly but surely did 
the nations of the earth lose their earli- 
est traditions of religion and sink into 
the most fearful corruption of soul and 
body. It became evident that man could 
not be saved by science or art, statesman- 
ship or even philosophy. The fulness of 
time, no doubt, had come for God to 
assume our nature and manifest Himself 
to His creatures. Jesus Christ, the Divine 
Word Incarnate, came on earth for no 
other purpose than to offer up an infinite 
ransom for our souls, and to point out 
the true path that leads to everlasting 
happiness. In His infinite goodness and 
mercy He condescended to our low es- 
tate, to become man like unto us, in 
order that He might secure us the 
means by which we could surely follow 



Infallibility. 237 

in His footsteps and become partakers of 
His unspeakable reward. 

For this purpose He established a 
Church, which He made the depository 
not only of the infinite merits acquired 
by His sufferings and death, but the de- 
pository likewise of all those truths which 
He came to announce unto mankind — not 
simply to one race or people, or age or 
country, but to all tribes and nations and 
all succeeding ages unto the end of time. 

Had He not come to show us the way, 
then we would be free to choose our 
own ; but having come, out of infinite 
condescension, it is evidently His inten- 
tion that we should all select the path 
which He so clearly marked out for us. 
" Wishing all men to be saved and to 
arrive at the knowledge of truth," as the 
Apostle declares, He no doubt places 



238 Infallibility. 

means within their reach for attaining 
this knowledge and saving truth. 

We all believe that Jesus Christ, being 
the Incarnate God, must be infinitely 
wise, as He is also infinitely powerful. 
Desiring to attain the end which He 
proposed unto Himself, He must neces- 
sarily have adapted the means unto the 
end. Hence He must have established 
a rule of faith that would suit all ages, 
all characters, all dispositions, that would 
be applicable to every people and suit 
the exigencies of all time. 

THE RULE OF FAITH 

should be a plain one, easily discerned, 
easily grasped, adapted to the weakest 
as well as the strongest minds, as bind- 
ing on the learned and powerful as on 
the uneducated and lowly. It should be 



Infallibility. 239 

not only a plain rule but also a com- 
prehensive one, embracing all necessary 
truths, all important doctrines ; and a per- 
fectly safe and sure rule, so that no one 
might be led into error on points of faith 
or practice. 

Isaias prophesied that when the Re- 
deemer should come He would point out 
the way — the way of holiness, a certain 
and sure way, which no one could mis- 
take, and even fools could not fail to 
perceive, and leading to eternal happi- 
ness ; " And a path and a way shall be 
there, and it shall be called the holy 
way ; the unclean shall not pass over it, 
and this shall be unto you a straight 
way, so that fools shall not err therein. 
And the redeemed of the Lord 
shall return, and shall come into Sion 
with praise, and everlasting joy shall be 



240 Infallibility. 

upon their heads ; they shall obtain joy 
and gladness, and sorrow and mourning 
shall flee away " (xxxv. 8, 10). 

They who believe in the divinity of 
Christ and His mission cannot but admit 
that He was wise enough to institute 
a religion, establish a Church or system 
of divine truth, which would suit the re- 
quirements of every age, be a rule to 
all classes of men without distinction, and 
a sure and infallible guide for all gene- 
rations unto the end of the world. That 
He was wise enough to devise such a 
Church, and powerful enough to carry out 
His design, no Christian can call into 
doubt. 

The sure rule of faith was to be 

A LIVING, INFALLIBLE TEACHER. 

For our Saviour, as we said in the pre- 



Infallibility. 241 

ceding treatise, did not found His Church 
on the Sacred Scriptures, but on the 
preaching of His Word by the Apostles. 
The Bible is the infallible Word of God; 
it is the rule of faith, but not the only 
rule. It does not contain all revealed 
truth, nor was it intended ever so to do. 
Christians, as a body, believe many things 
for which they can find no proof in the 
Bible ; for instance, you cannot prove by 
the Bible why you observe Sunday and 
keep it holy, instead of the Sabbath, or 
seventh day, commanded in the Sacred 
Scriptures. 

2. The Apostles strictly forbade the eat- 
ing of blood or things strangled (Acts 
xv. 29), and you cannot prove from their 
writings that you are dispensed from the 
obligation. 

3. You cannot prove from the Bible 



242 Infallibility. 

itself the canonicity or the divine inspi- 
ration of its component parts. 

Our Blessed Saviour no doubt said : 
" Search the Scriptures," or, according to 
the more correct version: "You search 
the Scriptures." But these words were 
addressed to the Scribes and Pharisees, 
who denied His divine mission, and whom 
He consequently referred to the Old Tes- 
tament, to the writings of Moses and the 
prophets, "who gave testimony of Him." 
He certainly did not refer to the New 
Testament, not one word of which was 
written until several years after His death. 
He Himself wrote nothing, nor do we 
anywhere find that He commanded any- 
thing to be written. The majority of the 
Apostles left no writings after them; and 
those of them who did write, it was only 
after they had founded their churches, to 



Infallibility. 243 

satisfy particular requests or to meet cer- 
tain emergencies. All the early Christian 
churches were founded by the preaching 
of the Gospel, and not by the diffusion of 
copies of the Scriptures. As St. Irenaeus, 
who lived in the age immediately fol- 
lowing that of the Apostles, declared : 
Gentes barbarae sine litteris fidem didice- 
runt — " Foreign nations learned the faith 
without the aid of letters." 

The vast majority of people, in all ages 
of the Christian era, were unable to read; 
and, even if they had been able, it would 
have been impossible, except for the most 
wealthy, to procure a copy of a large 
work like the Bible — in manuscript, of 
course, as the art of printing was not 
discovered until the middle of the fif- 
teenth century. It is only four hundred 
and twenty-four years since the Bible 



244 Infallibility. 

was first printed by the Catholic Guten- 
berg. 

So we see most clearly that the Bible 

was not, and could not possibly have 

been, the only rule of faith for 

SO MANY GENERATIONS 

who were obliged to receive their faith 
from the oral instructions of their pastors, 
who explained to them the Word of God 
and the different mysteries of the Catholic 
Religion. If the Almighty intended that 
the Sacred Scriptures should be the only 
rule of faith, He would not have permit- 
ted the discovery of the art of printing, 
so necessary for His supposed design, to 
have been kept in the dark so many hun- 
dreds of years. 

And now that, by reason of the print- 
ing-press, copies of the Bible are spread 



Infallibility. 245 

with greatest profusion over the face of 
the earth, it does not prove itself to be 
the sure, certain, and unmistakable rule, 
since even the learned differ so much as 
to its interpretation. 

How can those who believe not in the 
Catholic Church be sure that they have 
the Bible pure and unadulterated, neither 
added to nor diminished from what it 
was when it left the hands of its inspired 
writers ; that the translation they possess 
is a faithful rendering of the original ? An 
examination of this kind would take the 
most of a mans lifetime; would require 
immense labor, very deep study, and no 
small amount of ability, as well as a cor- 
rect knowledge of various different lan- 
guages. Surely such could not have been 
the means adopted by an All-wise Re- 
deemer for the salvation of the human race, 



246 Infallibility. 

No sure faith can be derived from the 
Bible without a sure teacher. Of what 
practical use could be the infallible Word, 
the dead letter of the law, without the living 
voice of an infallible interpreter? What 
advantage was to be derived from the 
coming of Christ upon earth to establish 
but one true Church, if every Christian 
were free to form his own creed, to draw 
his own faith from the Bible, to be guided 
by no authority but his own judgment, to 
receive and accept what he liked, to reject 
what he disliked — whatever did not agree 
with his fancies, his whims, his pet theo- 
ries, or even his passions and prejudices? 

Erect private judgment as the stand- 
ard, the rule of faith, and there is no 
authority on earth to which a man is 
obliged to submit. All other churches 
except the Catholic confess that they are 



Infallibility. 247 

fallible, or liable to err ; and, in making 
this admission, they cannot reasonably 
demand for their various creeds or pro- 
fessions of faith the perfect assent of 
mind of their followers. 

Admit the right of private judgment 
in the interpretation of the Scriptures, 
and you concede at the same time the 
right to every man to establish a church 
of his own, if he be not pleased with 
any of those already founded. For most 
certainly, if one man have the right of 
seceding from the Church and forming a 
creed of his own, a sect or denomina 
tion, every other individual has the same 
right. Hence it is now almost impossi- 
ble to count the number of so-called re- 
ligions. We hear of some new one be- 
ing invented nearly every month. It was 
only a few years ago since the body 



248 Infallibility. 

styling itself the Reformed Episcopal 
Church separated from the Protestant 
Episcopal Churches of England and 
America; and it was only very lately 
we learned from the public journals that 
Dr. Gregg, who became bishop of that 
church, separated from that also and 
formed a new one of his own, of which 
he constituted himself the Primate. In 
fact, he intends to be Pope of it — and 
small blame to him ; for if he have the 
power of establishing a new religion, no 
one can very well dispute his title to 
be its supreme pontiff. 

So it will be unto the end of time. 
New sects will constantly arise to lead 
men far away from the truth so long 
as poor, weak, erring mortals will at- 
tempt to improve on the work of God 
in the establishment of a church. 



Infallibility. 249 

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
established but 

ONE TRUE CHURCH, 

"the pillar and ground of truth," and 
He founded it on a Rock that was 
never to fail, never to be submerged 
amid the waves of error, heresy, or cor- 
ruption — the imperishable Rock of Ages, 
which no storm can shake or move 
from its unshifting, unchangeable foun- 
dations, and against which, He most 
solemnly declared, all the powers of 
hell shall never prevail: "And I say 
to thee: Thou art Peter [a rock], and 
on this rock I will build my Church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against 
it" (St. Matthew xvi. 18). 

What is meant by the* "gates of hell" 



250 Infallibility. 

but the powers of darkness, all errors, 
heresies, schisms, all efforts of human as 
well as diabolic malice? 

That Jesus Christ made this solemn 
promise no one can doubt, since it is 
found in all versions of the Bible. He 
likewise promised to send, for the guid- 
ance of the Apostles and their succes- 
sors, His Holy Spirit, who would teach 
them all truth and recall to their minds 
whatsoever He had taught them ; and 
that He Himself would remain with them 
all days, "even unto the consummation 
of the world." 

Was Jesus Christ able to fulfil His 
promises, or was He not? If not, then 
He was not the divine person He claim- 
ed to be ; and quod nimis probat, nihil 
probat — what proves too much proves 
nothing for our adversaries, as in that 



Infallibility. 2 5 1 

case all Christianity falls to the ground 
as the hugest of impositions. 

If Christ were able to fulfil his pro- 
mises, then the Catholic Church stands 
on the same foundation it ever did, and 
so shall it remain unto the end of time, 
the infallible Teacher of mankind, to 
whose instructions all men, whether learn- 
ed or unlearned, should immediately sub- 
mit. 

If error or heresy ever crept into its 
authoritative teaching, if ever for any 
period of time, be it a century or be it 
simply one moment, it fell away from the 
true faith of Christ, then most undoubt- 
edly "the gates of hell" prevailed against 
it and the promises of Christ most mise- 
rably failed. If His promises failed, then 
He was not a divine person ; if not a 
divine person, then not even a good man, 



252 Infallibility. < 

but the most successful of deceivers and 
most arrant of impostors. There is no 
logical standing ground between the two 
parts of this proposition. 

We believe, then, that the Catholic 
Church was gifted with 

INFALLIBILITY 

by its Divine Founder — that is to say, 
it never erred and never can err in mat- 
ters of faith or morals; it can never pro- 
pose or define any doctrine as a dogma 
that has not been handed down from 
Christ and His Apostles, and contained 
explicitly, or at least implicitly, in the 
original deposit of faith. 

We believe, moreover, that with what- 
ever infallibility the Church is endowed, 
so is its visible head, the Bishop of 
Rome, 



Infallibility. 253 

THE SUCCESSOR OF ST. PETER. 

In other words, the Pope, the Vicegerent 
of Christ, when speaking ex cathedra, as 
Head of the Church, in defining dogma 
or morals, cannot err in his teaching. 

A great many persons mistake infalli- 
bility for impeccability. There is a vast 
difference between them. Impeccable 
means that a person cannot sin. Now, 
no Catholic, be he never so little instruct- 
ed in the faith, believes that the Pope 
cannot sin. The Pope is a weak man 
like ourselves, subject to the same pas- 
sions, the same evil inclinations, the same 
temptations as we. He has to make use 
of the same safeguards, and, in fact, 
greater safeguards than the majority of 
Christians, for he is placed higher, " in 
alto positus," and has more fearful respon- 
sibilities. Popes may sin, and some 



254 Infallibility, 

have sinned. Nor is this wonderful ; for 
since there was one faithless Apostle 
among the twelve, we need not be sur- 
prised that there were a few — very few 
indeed — among the Sovereign Pontiffs 
who were unworthy of their exalted posi- 
tion. 

So a Pope is liable to sin, and, as a 
private teacher, in ordinary conversation 
or in familiar discourse he is also liable 
to say what may be erroneous. 

He is infallible or preserved from error, 
through the promise of Christ and the 
gracious assistance of the Holy Spirit, 
only when he addresses the whole 
Church, as its Head, on what appertains 
to faith or morals. 

The Pope cannot invent any new doc- 
trine, cannot promulgate as a dogma what 
has no foundation in Sacred Writ or in 



Infallibility. 255 

apostolic tradition. He decides or defines 
what has been always believed in the 
Church from the very beginning, when- 
ever it seems necessary or exceedingly 
beneficial to make a dogma of a truth 
already believed, but subject to discussions 
or controversies injurious to the piety or 
obedience of the faithful. Three examples 
of this may here be given : The divinity 
of Christ, for instance, was undoubtedly 
believed by all true Christians from the 
very foundation of the Church, and yet 
it was not declared a dogma until the 
Council of Nice, a.d. 325, and then only 
because of the injurious and seductive 
teaching of the Arians. So also the Im- 
maculate Conception of the Blessed Vir- 
gin Mary and the Infallibility of the 
Pope are doctrines that have always been 
believed in the Church, with but few dis- 



256 Infallibility. 

senting voices, and still they were not 
declared dogmas, under pain of excom- 
munication, until our own time. 

The vast majority of Catholics believe 
now, and always did believe, that the 
Blessed Virgin immediately after death 
was taken up, body and soul, into heaven, 
and yet it is not a dogma of faith. Sup- 
pose that in a hundred years from now 
it should be proclaimed a dogma, it could 
not be then said that it is a new doctrine. 

Let us now examine the grounds on 
which the dogma of 

PAPAL INFALLIBILITY 

rests, and give a reason for the faith that 
is in us. 

Destining His Church to last during all 
time, our Divine Lord built it on such a 
foundation as would resist all the storms 



Infallibility. 257 

of ages and all the machinations of its 
enemies. He commissioned twelve Apos- 
tles to preach His Gospel unto every peo- 
ple: "Go, teach all nations"; and He 
endowed them with all the powers and 
faculties necessary for the successful ful- 
filment of His most holy design. The 
like powers that were given to Him by 
His Heavenly Father He bestowed on 
them and their successors : " As the 
Father hath sent Me, I also send you." 
Giving unto them this wonderful and 
divine power, He knew full well, for He 
knew all things, that the Church was not 
to end with His Apostles, but, through 
their successors, to continue unto the con- 
summation of ages. He consequently 
determined on establishing 

A CENTRE OF UNITY 

for the whole Christian world, and thus 



258 Infallibility. 

prevent any schisms, heresies, or spirit 
of disunion from ever sundering that 
bond of union which was to be during 
all time the distinguishing mark or cha- 
racteristic of the One True Church. 

Granting full and ample powers to all 
the Apostles in order to carry out their 
mission of converting the nations, He 
conferred the Primacy, with all its honor, 
authority, and prerogatives, on St. Peter 
alone, whom He constituted the Head or 
Chief of the Apostolic band. This is 
fully proved from Christ's own words as 
contained in the Gospel, the testimony 
of all Christian antiquity, and the prac- 
tice as well as belief of the universal 
Church. 

Three different times, and in the most 
solemn manner, did Christ bestow this 
special authority and exalted privilege on 



Infallibility. 259 

St. Peter: 1. When St. Peter, first of 
all the Apostles, confessed his faith openly 
in the divinity of his Master : " Jesus 
saith to them : But whom do ye say that 
I am ? Simon Peter answering, said to 
Him: Thou art Christ, the Son of the 
living God. And Jesus answering, said 
to him : Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- 
Jona ; because flesh and blood hath not 
revealed it to thee, but My Father who 
is in heaven. And I say to thee: that 
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will 
build My Church ; and the gates of hell 
shall not prevail against it. And I will 
give to thee the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven ; and whatsoever thou shalt bind 
upon earth, it shall be bound also in hea- 
ven ; and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
upon earth r it shall be loosed also in hea- 
ven " (Matt. xvi. 15-19). 



260 Infallibility. 

To St. Peter alone were given 

"THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM," 

which words, according to the manner of 
speaking among the people of the East, 
most forcibly denoted the conferring of 
supreme power and authority. This is 
the sense in which it is used by Isaias, 
xxii. 22: "And I will lay the key of the 
house of David upon his shoulder: and 
he shall open, and none shall shut : and 
he shall shut, and none shall open." Also 
by St. John in the Apocalypse, or Reve- 
lations, iii. 7 : " These things saith the Holy 
One and True One, who hath the key of 
David : He that openeth, and no man shut- 
teth; and shutteth, and no man openeth." 
On account of his noble confession of 
faith the Lord changed Simons name 
to Peter — Kipho in Syriac, Cephas in 



Infallibility. 261 

Greek, and Petrus from the Latin 
petra, which signifies a rock; thus merit- 
ing to become the rock on which the 
Church was to be built — the immovable 
rock of the Papacy, impregnable against 
all the storms of error and heresy. 
"And the rain fell, and the floods came, 
and the winds blew, and they beat upon 
that house, and it fell not, for it was 
founded upon a rock" (St, Matt. vii. 25). 

Origen, who lived in the third cen- 
tury, says that " Peter was by the Lord 
called a rock, since to him is said : 
1 Thou art Peter, and on this rock I 
will build My Church/ The chief au- 
thority as regards the feeding of the 
flock was delivered to Peter." 

4< Who can be ignorant," says St. Au- 
gustine, "that the most blessed Peter is 
the Chief of the Apostles ? " 



262 Infallibility. 

The second time to which reference is 
made is as follows : We know full well 
that Christ's prayer is always heard, as 
He Himself declared: "Father, I give 
Thee thanks that Thou hast heard Me, 
and I know that Thou hearest Me al- 
ways" (St. John xi. 41). There is no 
doubt that He prayed most particularly 
for Peter and all his successors in office, 
that his faith and theirs might be always 
constant and true, so that they should 
be the leaders and confirmers of their 
brethren during all time : " Simon, Si- 
mon, behold Satan hath desired to have 
thee that he may sift thee as wheat : but 
I have prayed for thee that thy faith 
fail not ; and thou being once converted, 
confirm thy brethren " (St. Luke xxii. 

3h 32). 

The faith of the See of Peter has 



Infallibility. 263 

never failed and never shall fail ; for on 
the Rock of Peter, as on a sure, solid, 
enduring foundation, Christ built His 
Church. 

3. After our Lord's glorious Resurrec- 
tion, and immediately before His Ascen- 
sion, by the Sea of Galilee He gave full 
charge to St Peter of the whole Church 
— the entire flock, both shepherds and 
sheep — to feed them with the heavenly 
food of true doctrine, to dispense the 
mysteries of God, to watch over, govern, 
direct, and guide the one true fold for 
whose salvation He, the Good Shepherd, 
laid down His life. 

There and then he required a triple 
affirmation from St. Peter of his love 
towards Him, and with a triple charge 
did the Saviour command him to feed 
His whole flock : " Jesus saith to Simon 



264 Infallibility. 

Peter : Simon, Son of John, lovest thou 
Me more than these ? He saith to Him : 
Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love 
Thee. He saith to him : Feed My 
lambs. He saith to him again : Simon, 
son of John, lovest thou Me ? He saith 
to Him : Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that 
I love Thee. He saith to him : Feed 
My lambs. He saith to him the third 
time : Simon, son of John, lovest thou 
Me ? Peter was grieved, because He said 
to him the third time, Lovest thou Me ? 
And he said to Him: Lord, Thou know- 
est all things : Thou knowest that I 
love Thee. He said to him : Feed My 
sheep" (St. John xxi. 15-17). 

This comparison of His Church to a 
flock was a favorite one of our Lord, 
as we may see from the tenth chapter 
of the Gospel according to St. John : 



In/a I lib ility. 265 

"And other sheep I have, that are not of 
this fold : them also I must bring ; they 
shall hear My voice, and there shall 
be one fold and one shepherd." Such 
was to be for ever the distinctive mark 
of His Church, by which it may be 
infallibly known from all others: "There 
shall be one fold and one shepherd!' 

The words of our Saviour constituting 
St. Peter the visible head of the Church 
and the shepherd of the one fold were 
well understood by the Apostles them- 
selves. In their sacred writings they in- 
variably give the first place to St. Peter 
whenever they mention him in connec- 
tion with the others ; he is always the 
spokesman — the organ, so to speak — of 
the Apostolic College: "Now the names 
of the twelve Apostles are these : the first, 
Simon, who is called Peter " (St. Matt. 



266 Infallibility. 

x. 2.) But some one might say that the 
Evangelist enumerated them in the order 
in which they were called to the faith. 
In that case St. Peter should not be 
named first, but his brother, St. Andrew ; 
therefore this objection falls to the 
ground. There are a number of other 
texts in this connection: "And Simon 
and they who were with him" (St. 
Mark i. 36); "Peter and they who were 
with him " (St. Luke ix. 32). 

St. Peter was the first to preach to 
the people after the descent of the Holy 
Ghost on the apostolic band the day of 
Pentecost: "Peter standing up with the 
eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke to 
them " (Acts of Apostles ii. 14). 

Again, chapter v. 29: "Peter then an- 
swering and the apostles, said." So also 
at the first council of the Church, held 



Infallibility. 267 

• 

at Jerusalem, when " the Apostles and 
ancients came together to consider of 
this matter. And when there was much 
disputing, Peter rising up, said, etc. . . . 
And all the multitude held their peace" 
(xv. 7, 12). 

Our Saviour taught the multitude from 
the bark of Peter (Luke v. 3), and con- 
tinues so to do during all succeeding 
ages. We learn from St. Matthew (xvii. 
26) that our Lord paid tribute for Him- 
self and Peter. 

Most assuredly all this did not happen 
without design, and that design the evi- 
dent intention of Christ to constitute Pe- 
ter, and his successors in the Apostolic 
See, the centre of unity and the source 
of all power, authority, and jurisdiction 
for the entire Church. 

St. Peter was the first of the Apostles 



268 Infallibility. 

to whom the Lord appeared after His 
Resurrection; the first to open the coun- 
cil, to work the first miracle, and the 
first to call both Jews and Gentiles to 
the faith. 

The primacy of honor and jurisdic- 
tion, and the prerogatives attached there- 
to, were always acknowledged in the 
Church from the very beginning as be- 
ing the inherent rights of the occupant 
of the See of Peter. 

That St. Peter established his See at 
Rome, and from there exercised rule over 
the whole Church, is as well established 
a fact as any other important event in 
history. St. Irenaeus, who flourished in 
the second century, enumerating the bish- 
ops of Rome, says : " St. Peter succeeded 
Linus; to Linus, Anacletus; then, in the 
third place, Clement." Besides other his- 



Infallibility. 269 

torical proofs we have the testimonies of 
Eusebius, the Father of ecclesiastical his- 
tory; of the learned St. Jerome, and the 
most ancient Calendarium Romanum. 

Eusebius thus speaks: "The providence 
of the Universal Ruler led, as it were 
by the hand, to Rome Peter, the great 
one and most powerful of the Apostles, 
and, on account of his virtue, the mouth- 
piece of the others against that sad 
destroyer of the human race (Simon 
Magus). He (Peter), like a noble gen- 
eral appointed by God, armed with hea- 
venly weapons, brought the precious mer- 
chandise of intellectual light from the 
East to the dwellers in the West." 
This fact is admitted by the most learned 
of our opponents — Pearson, Usher, Cave, 
and others. 

St. Jerome, writing to Pope Damasus, 



2 jo Infallibility. 

thus expresses himself on this point: " I 
am following no other than Christ, united 
to the communion of Your Holiness — that 
is, to the Chair of Peter. I know that 
the Church is founded on that rock. 
Whoever eateth the Lamb out of that 
House is a profane man. Whoever is 
not in the ark shall perish by the flood. 
. . . He that gathereth not with you, 
scattereth." 

St. Augustine declared that what kept 
him in the Catholic Church was " the 
succession of priests from the very Chair 
of Peter — to whom the Lord, after His 
Resurrection, committed His flock to be 
fed — down to the present bishop." 

"In the city of Rome," says St. Opta- 
tus (fourth century), " on Peter was the 
episcopal chair first conferred, that, in one 
chair, unity might be preserved by all." 



Infa llibility. 2 7 1 

Whoever, then, would dare deny this 
fact would obtain as little credit as he 
who should deny that Washington was 
the first President of the United States. 
One is as much an absolute fact of his- 
tory as the other. 

All acknowledge that the Jewish Syna- 
gogue was but a figure of the Church 
of Christ, and that the figure can bear 
no comparison in perfection with the 
reality. In the Old Law, then, a special 
direction and assistance were vouchsafed 
to the High-Priest (Deut. xvii. 9). How 
much more is this special guidance due 
to the chief representative and Vicar of 
Jesus Christ in the New Law — the law 
of grace and perfection ! 

1. It is a matter of history that never 
since the foundation of the Church has 
any Pope (no matter what his private 



272 In/a llibility. 

character may have been) broached any 
heresy when speaking ex cathedra, as 
Head of the Church universal. 

2. Papal decisions on matters of faith, 
morals, or even discipline have been re- 
ceived in all ages with the greatest re- 
spect, reverence, and obedience by the 
great body of pastors of the Church. In 
the early ages Pope Clement corrected 
abuses in the Church of Corinth, Pope 
Victor in that of Ephesus, and Pope 
Stephen in that of Africa. 

3. Heresies in different ages were 
condemned by Popes acting on their own 
authority and without the aid of councils. 

4. No council has ever been consid- 
ered oecumenical unless it was presided 
over by the Pope or his delegates, or 
had his approbation as to its decrees. 
The Fathers of the Council of Chalce- 



In/a I lib ility. 273 

don, on hearing the letter of Pope Leo 
read to them, exclaimed : " This is the 
faith of our fathers: Peter has spoken 
through Leo." 

5, In difficulties of any magnitude ap- 
peals from bishops, and even patri- 
archs, were always laid before the Pope. 
Pope Julius restored Paul, Patriarch of 
Constantinople, and Athanasius, Patriarch 
of Alexandria, to their respective sees ; 
and Pope Innocent reinstated the great 
St. John Chrysostom. 

Never was there a time when 

THE PAPACY 

attracted so much attention and was the 
object of so much investigation as at 
present. All eyes are turned towards it. 
Every part of its history, every minute 
particular, is examined. Learning, science, 



2 74 Infallibility. 

history, and research have made their 
utmost endeavors to solve the mystery 
of its existence. Love and hatred, con- 
fidence and mistrust, have been exercised 
in its favor or disfavor, and yet it stands 
the wonder of all, the miracle of the 
universe. 

Without the Papacy there would be no 
Catholicity, as there would be no Catho- 
licity without unity. The centre of uni- 
ty is the Chair of Peter, the Apostolic 
See, the fountain of ecclesiastical authori- 
ty, the source of spiritual jurisdiction. 
It is a 

DIVINE ORGANISM, 

living its own life, and imparting light 
and heat to the whole world. It is the 
creation of God. It derives not its power 
from men ; it owes not its existence to 
any agreement or compact. It is the 



Infallibility. 275 

heart as well as head of the Church. 
Life and light radiate from that divinely- 
appointed centre. Any member not united 
with that Head, not animated by that 
Heart, is dead— cannot live its true life 
or attain its true destiny. Ubi Petrus^ 
ibi Ecclesia — where Peter is, there is the 
Church — says St. Ambrose. No one can 
be a member of the Catholic Church who 
is not in communion with the See of 
Peter. This is an indispensable requisite. 
Whoever is not in accord with the 
faith of Peter — for Peter lives in each 
of his successors — cannot be a member 
of Christ, who is the invisible Head of 
the Church, as the Pope, the Bishop of 
Rome, is its visible Head and His Vice- 
gerent : " He who will not hear the 
Church," says our Lord, " let him be to 
thee as a heathen and a publican. " "For 



276 Infallibility. 

the lips of the priest," says the prophet 
Malachy, " shall keep knowledge, and 
they shall seek the law at his mouth ; 
because he is the angel of the Lord of 
Hosts" (Mai. ii. 7). "He that knoweth 
God, heareth us : he that is not of God, 
heareth us not ; by this we know the 
spirit of truth, and the spirit of error," 
says St. John (1 Epistle iv. 6). 

" There are other sheep," our Blessed 
Saviour says, " not of the fold," whom 
He is anxious to lead in, that they may 
be made one fold under the one shepherd. 

There are many, I believe, outside the 
fold not through any fault of their own. 
They have been brought up in ignorance 
of, and oftentimes embittered against, that 
faith into which, although unconsciously 
on their part, they have been baptized. 
For, let it be well understood, when a 



Infallibility. 277 

person is validly baptized, no matter by 
whom, he becomes ipso facto a member 
of the Holy Catholic Church, and such 
he remains until, by some act of his 
own free will, he rejects the known truth 
and adheres to some heresy. 

Hence I trust that there are many 
joined with us in spiritual, who are, to 
all appearances, far from us in bodily, 
communion. And yet it is their duty to 
enquire, to investigate, to examine on 
what grounds they rest their faith; and, 
above all, to pray frequently to the Al- 
mighty, to implore most earnestly the 
light of the Holy Spirit, that He may 
discover to them the whole truth as it 
is in Christ Jesus, and that he may give 
them the grace to follow whithersoever He 
may lead. Let them live lives of purity 
and prayer, and exercise generous chari- 



278 Infallibility. 

ty towards the poorer members of Jesus 
Christ, and they may rest assured that 
He will forsake them not in the time of 
need nor leave their prayers unanswered. 

In conclusion, let me beg of all who 
differ from us to cast aside all prejudice 
and bigotry, and to examine calmly, like 
earnest men and Christians, the claims 
of the Catholic Church on their studious 
attention. I assure them, with all the sin- 
cerity of my soul, that there is no study 
in the world of deeper interest or more 
worthy of their consideration. 

No other investigation can bring forth 
so rich a fruit, so happy a result. The 
deeper we advance into that Holy of 
Holies the more the clouds that seemed 
to shadow its entrance vanish from sight 
and disappear, until the full splendor of 
Gods truth and God's light shine upon 



Infallibility. 279 

our souls, dispelling all doubt, and every 
shadow of doubt, and holding our minds 
entranced beyond power of resistance. 

Such is the Catholic Church to those 
who know it as it is, and who love it 
as the 

EVER FAITHFUL SPOUSE 

of Jesus Christ, without " spot or wrinkle," 
stain or imperfection — " Thou art all fair, 
my dove, and there is no stain in thee, :> 
as the Divine One says to His beloved 
in the Canticle of Canticles. 

The more I study the Catholic Faith 
the more and more am I ravished with 
its beauty all divine, its heavenly dogmas, 
its sublime moral code, its eminent rea- 
sonableness, and perfect adaptability to 
all the needs of man's nature, all the 
aspirations of his immortal soul. 



280 Infallibility. 

Therefore it is that, being so deeply 
convinced of its divine mission unto the 
whole human race, I long with the souls 
inmost longing for others to enjoy the 
same inestimable privileges, to be bless- 
ed with the same divine faith, to be 
brought by God's all-powerful grace into 
that one true fold at the gate of which 
Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, stands, 
anxiously waiting to embrace them in 
His outstretched Fatherly arms. 

" The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 
and the charity of God, and the com- 
munication of the Holy Spirit be with 
you alL ,, Amen. 



(in 



